THE ADAPTATIONS OF A SLOTH

-Jashan Loomba
8C
Roll no. 10
 STRUCTURAL ADAPTATIONS
• Camouflage
• Three-toed sloths have tan coats, while two-toed sloths usually have gray-brown fur. While
these tones match tree trunks and branches, the animals have another layer of camouflage:
Green algae grow from their hair, enabling them to better blend into the leaves and vines of the
treetop canopy.
• Defense
• With their slow speed, sloths might seem like easy prey for anacondas, boas, wild cats, eagles
and hawks. However, they use their long, sharp claws -- normally used to hold onto branches --
and very sharp teeth to fiercely defend themselves. When they’re in the trees, special
adaptations help them spot potential threats. Two-toed sloths can tilt their heads 45 degrees
backward to watch for predators. Three-toed sloths have nine cervical vertebrae -- four more
than their relatives -- that enable them to rotate their heads 270 degrees to scan for threats.
 STRUCTURAL ADAPTATIONS
• Metabolism
• Both two- and three-toed sloths have extremely slow metabolism, enabling them to remain in the
same tree for several days before descending to seek more food. Slow of movement and content
to sleep up to 15 hours a day, the sloth is perfectly adapted to live in the rainforest canopy. Their
long limbs have either three or five toes with long claws adapted to hold on to tree limbs. Sloths
spend much of their time hanging upside down and their fur has adapted for this as well.
• Weather Adaptations
• Sloths’ thick, dense coats help keep them dry during the rainy season. An undercoat guards their
skin, while the longer, outer hairs hang down at an angle, providing a natural path for water to
flow off the animal. Two-toed sloths can vary their body temperature from 75 to 91 degrees
Fahrenheit, allowing them to adapt to various weather conditions. Three-toed sloths raise their
body temperature by basking.
 BEHAVIORAL ADAPTATIONS
• Despite being slow, sloths are well adapted to their environment. They cannot walk, but are
actually really good swimmers. They move slowly, but this helps them stay unseen by
predators. It also helps them stay warned of a predator’s presence, either by sound or smell.
• The most prominent and commonly seen behavioral adaptation of sloth is that they are really
very slow while moving on both land and on tree. That’s their kind of adaptation to conserve
energy and survive on a very low amount of nutrition from the leaves. Sloths move only
when necessary to also avoid injury, as being cautious in the rainforests (their habitat) is
paramount.
 BEHAVIORAL ADAPTATIONS
• A sloth’s activity begins about one hour following sunset and they are active about 11 hours
throughout night. Their activity ceases about 2 hours before dawn. Their average activity is
about 7.6 hours a day. They do this in order to save energy, help in their body functions like
digestion, and avoid predators by moving around mainly in the night, as their camouflage
protects them during the day while the sleep.
• They sleep 15 to 20 hours daily and spend the rest of their time foraging for leaves or
traveling between trees. They also come down to defecate but only need to do that once
every eight days, allowing them to save valuable energy and time.
SMART,SLY,SLOW SLOTHS
THANK YOU!!!