Curiosities about the sloth

Author: Peter Berry
Date Of Creation: 15 February 2021
Update Date: 3 November 2024
Anonim
20 Interesting Facts About the SLOTH
Video: 20 Interesting Facts About the SLOTH

Content

There are days when you feel lazy to get up, want to relax, not make great efforts, and do all activities slowly. You've certainly had days like that already, haven't you? O sloth is a popular mammal, famous for its large slowness. He moves slowly and spends his days peacefully at his peculiar pace. The sloth is still an animal enigmatic and unique for even its appearance is intriguing. do you want to know some trivia about the sloth? So you can't miss this article from Animal Expert!

1. Sloth Characteristics

  • Color: May be light gray or grayish green, with brown, white or black spots.
  • Weight: Puppies are born weighing about 250 grams. Adults can weigh between 4 to 6 kilos.
  • Family: armadillos and anteaters.
  • Height: 70 cm with the tail.
  • Puppies: 1 per year.
  • Age for fertilization: Four months.

2. Existing species

  • Bradypus tridactylus (bentinho sloth);
  • Bradypus variegatus (common sloth);
  • Bradypus torquatus (maned sloth);
  • Bradypus pygmaeus (three-toed sloth - not found in Brazil, only in Panama);
  • Choloepus hoffmanni (royal sloth);
  • Choloepus didactylus (also called royal sloth).

3. Where can we find the sloth?

Laziness can be found in Amazon and the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, in addition to appearing in countries of the Central and South America.


4. Lifespan of the sloth

Taking healthy habits, the sloth can live between 30 to 50 years.

5. Does the sloth sleep a lot?

Thanks to this slowness, which is one of the main curiosities about the sloth, there is a belief that the sloth sleeps more than 20 hours a day, but this could not be further from reality: it only sleeps until 12 hours a day and spends the rest of the time finding food or a partner.

6. How do physical characteristics help the sloth?

The sloth has a grayish-green fur that cannot be said to be his, since among its hairs there is a kind of algae that gives it this hue. Thanks to the effect of these algae, the sloth is able to camouflage between the leaves.


The upper limbs of this animal are longer than the lower ones and they have three fingers on each paw, with these fingers, he can hold himself tightly in the branches of the trees where he lives.

7. Is the sloth the slowest animal?

The sloth has several funny curiosities. Perhaps you've ever wondered why the sloth is so slow? Suffice it to say that on occasions this animal moves so slowly that it appears to be standing still. Can you imagine something like that?

The truth is that it travels, on average, two meters per minute when on land, reaching a maximum of up to 38 meters a day. Sloths live virtually all the time without changing their position. It usually hangs from the branches, with its back facing down, until it's time to go down to change trees or defecate.


There is no way to compare animals of different species, as each one of them has different characteristics, such as size and weight. Because of these differences, the rhythm of these animals can be relative. Some animals such as sponges and sea corals, for example, can be considered slow, even because they never move. However, among mammals, the sloth really is in first place in the ranking of slower animals.

Besides the sloths, there are other animals that are also quite slow, see in PeritoAnimal a list with the 10 slowest animals in the world and on the other hand, a list with the 10 fastest animals in the world.

8. Sloth Mating

Despite their slowness, sloths can find a partner quickly when they want. As part of the mating ritual that takes place in the branches of trees, the males fight each other to win the love of females. They observe the entire ritual and, when they consider that one of the males has won, they advise through the make a sound.

the sloth is lonely, prefers to choose a tree and live alone in it. The encounter with the female only happens to mate and soon after they separate.

9. Sloth feeding

Did you know that the slowness of this animal is mainly due to the sloth feeding? It is true! The feeding of sloths is not very varied, as they are leaf-eating, which means that they feed only on sheets of trees. they also eat some fruits, shoots and tree roots.

The sloth has a small "saw" which serves as "teeth" to chew the leaves, but not all the leaves they eat. The sloth's diet is very restricted, and there are usually only three options on their menu: embaúba leaves, fig leaves and tararanga leaves.

After ingesting the leaves, your digestive system helps to process them completely. Why does this influence your slowness? because the leaves are very low in calories and the sloth needs to save its energy, so it travels sparingly.

10. Pregnancy of the sloth

  • duration of pregnancy: 5 to 6 months.
  • duration of breastfeeding: 1 month.
  • Teaching period from mother to offspring: 9 months.
  • The puppies are hugged with their claws on their mother, until they learn everything they need to know to be able to move around, feed themselves and have independence.

11. Sloth knows how to swim

Although the sloth is a slow animal, it is very agile when moving through the trees, a task it performs thanks to its limbs. However, their lower limbs make walking difficult due to their short size, but this is offset by their great swimming ability.

12. Sloth does not drink water

The sloth has a curious characteristic: he doesn't drink water. That's because the food he eats contains water. They can even drink a drop of dew that falls on the leaves, but only if you're very close to them so you don't need to move.

13. Sloth can turn its head beyond the ordinary

The sloth has a valuable feature that is able to have a wide observation range due to its ability to turn its head until 270 degrees.

14. Sloth's physiological needs

Once a week they come down from the branches to defecate and urinate. After doing so, they try to bury everything to hide its odor.

15. Cannot be a pet

Due to its friendly appearance and docile temperament, the sloth is eventually captured to serve as a pet. However, the sloth can't be from a pet because it has very peculiar characteristics regarding food and, remaining in captivity, he may not resist. Although the curiosities about the sloth are wonderful, it needs to stay in the tree it chooses in the forest, its natural habitat!

16. Sloth Predators

Like most living things, the sloth has a series of predators. These are wild cats, with the jaguars and tigers, which climb the branches of trees very easily. In addition, the eagles and snakes they are also threats to laziness.

To protect themselves, sloths do not move on dry land, since on the ground they become easy prey for any predator, due to their slowness. therefore they spend most of their lives climbing over tree branches, not only because it's easy for them to get around this way, but also because that's where they get their food safely, while staying away from many predators.

17. Sloth in danger of extinction

Unfortunately, the various species of sloths that exist worldwide are in danger of extinction, each at different levels of danger. This threat that affects them is mainly due to the destruction of their habitat, as a result of the deforestation and climate change.

They are also in danger due to poaching for the consumption of its meat and use of the skin in the preparation of various products.

If you want to know more about the danger of extinction in Brazil, visit this article about 15 endangered animals in Brazil.