Three-toed sloths also have an advantage that few other mammals possess: They have extra neck vertebrae that allows them to turn their heads some degrees. All rights reserved.
Common Name: Three-Toed Sloths. Scientific Name: Bradypus. Type: Mammals. Diet: Herbivore. Size: 23 inches. Weight: 8. Size relative to a 6-ft man:. This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our photo community on Instagram.
Follow us on Instagram at natgeoyourshot or visit us at natgeo. Share Tweet Email. Go Further. It has the lowest and most variable body temperature of any mammal, ranging from 74 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit 24 to 33 degrees Celsius. If there is a long period of cool, rainy weather, a nursing female can get too cold. This causes the bacteria in her stomach to stop working, so the mother can no longer digest her food. The young continues to nurse as its mother starves to death.
This chilling phenomenon is called cold-weather orphan syndrome, as sometimes the youngster falls to the ground and needs to be rescued by humans. Sloths live in trees in the tropical and cloud forests of Central and South America. Their curved, sharp claws are 3 to 4 inches 8 to 10 centimeters long.
These claws are handy for hanging onto tree branches but make walking on the ground awkward. Yet sloths are great swimmers and can drop from a tree into a river to swim across it while doing the breaststroke! When sleeping, sloths often curl up in a ball in the fork of a tree. But they weigh much less than other wildlife their size, which is helpful for life in the trees. Two-toed sloths have two toes with claws on the front feet and three toes on the back feet, used to hang upside down from branches.
Three-toed sloths have three toes on their front AND back feet. Sloths look like some kind of slow-motion monkey and have long had a reputation for being lazy. The reason they move so slowly has a lot to do with what they eat: a variety of leaves, stems, buds, and some fruit. This kind of diet requires a special digestive system. Sloths have a large, four-chambered stomach, like a cow. Bacteria in their gut help digest the large amount of plant matter they eat.
Due to the low nutritional value of their leafy diet, sloths usually move at a leisurely pace and sleep a great deal. Where sloths choose to live dependents partly on what the animal enjoys eating. Pregnant sloths feed on the leaves of both the Lacmellea panamensis and the Cecropia eximia trees, according to Montclair State University's website. Both of these trees provide acceptable habitats for sloths. In addition to the branches of the trees themselves, some sloths will also settle into lianas, tangles of woody vines that connect the canopies of various trees in the rain forest.
These vines provide the sloths with good camouflage against predators and are sensitive to the vibrations caused by approaching predators, serving as an early warning system for the sloth. Preferences for types of trees sloths enjoy eating and living in pass through generations. Sloths tend to live solitary lives among the trees, seeking out others only for mating.
Mothers live with their young for their first six months to two years of life before the youngsters go off on their own, usually in the same home range, according to the San Diego Zoo website.
Of the six species of sloths in the wild, the maned three-toed sloth is classified as endangered, according to the World Animal Foundation. Babies cling to their mothers until they are able to take care of themselves.
Sloths are nocturnal and sleep curled up with their head placed between the arms and the feet drawn close together. This disguises them as part of a tree so that its enemies like the jaguar do not see them. Sloths rarely climb down from the trees and can live for up to 30 years.
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