SLOTH
Sloths are mammals classified in the families
Megalonychidae (two-toed sloths) and Bradypodidae (three-toed sloths),
including six extant species. They are named after the capital sin of sloth
because they seem slow and lazy at first glance; however, their usual idleness
is due to metabolic adaptations for conserving energy. Aside from their
surprising speed during emergency flights from predators, other notable traits
of sloths include their strong body and their ability to host symbiotic algae
on their furs. Sloths
make good habitats for other organisms, and a single sloth may be home to
moths, beetles, cockroaches, fungi , ciliates,
and algae .
Sloths are tropical mammals that live in Central and South
America. They use their long claws to hang onto branches while they feast on
the leaves that other animals can't reach. Unfortunately for the sloth, their
long claws 3 to 4 inches (8 to 10 centimeters) make walking on the ground
difficult, so they spend most of their time in the tall trees they call home.
There are two categories of sloths. The two-toed sloth is slightly
bigger than the three-toed sloth, though they share many of the same features.
They are about the size of a medium-sized dog at around 23 to 27 inches (58 to
68 cm) and 17.5 to 18.75 pounds (about 8 kilograms).
Physiology
Sloth fur exhibits specialized functions: the outer hairs grow in
a direction opposite from that of other mammals. In most mammals, hairs grow
toward the extremities, but because sloths spend so much time with their legs
above their bodies, their hairs grow away from the extremities to provide
protection from the elements while the sloth hangs upside down. In most
conditions, the fur hosts two species of symbiotic algae, which provide
camouflage. Sloths have short, flat heads, big eyes; short snouts, long legs,
and tiny ears. Some species have stubby tails (6–7 cm long). Altogether,
sloths' bodies usually are between 50 and 60 cm long.
Sloths' claws serve as their only natural defense. A cornered
sloth may swipe at its attackers in an effort to scare them away or wound them.
Despite sloths' apparent defenselessness, predators do not pose special
problems: sloths blend in with the trees and, moving only slowly, do not
attract attention. Only during their infrequent visits to ground level do they
become vulnerable. The main predators of sloths are the jaguar , the harpy
eagle, and humans.
Habitat
Though their ancestors lived in North America, modern sloths live
in Central and South America, enjoying the tall trees found in rain and cloud
forests. Sloths prefer sleeping while curled into a ball in the fork of a
tropical tree. They also like to sleep hanging by their claws from tree
branches.
For the most part, a sloth's life revolves around
sleeping and eating in their tree homes. The only times these mammals leave
their tree is to use the bathroom and to take a swim.
Sloths in captivity sleep from 15 to 20 hours per day, which can
leave them very little time for social activities. Sloths in the wild, though,
sleep about as much as humans, according to research by the Planck Institute for Ornithology in Starnberg, Germany.
After around nine hours of sleep, the sloth still
doesn't make an attempt at getting friendly with others. They live solo lives
the closest a sloth gets to social time is sleeping in the same tree with
another sloth.
Mating habits
Sloths mate in trees and give birth to their young in trees.
Courting starts when a female yells a mating scream to let the males in the
area know she is ready to mate. Males will fight for her by hanging from
branches by their feet and pawing at each other. The victor wins the prize of
mating with the female.
Like many other mammals, sloths only have one baby at
a time. Baby sloths have a gestation of five to six months for some types
sloths and as much as 11.5 months for others, such as the Hoffman's two-toed
sloth. After they are born, the babies aren't
in a hurry to leave their mother. They ride around clinging to their mother's
belly for several weeks after birth. Even after they stop dangling from their
mother, little sloths stay by their mother's side for up to four years.
Diet
The tough leaves in a sloth's diet are difficult to digest. Sloths
have a four-part stomach that slowly digests the leaves with bacteria. It can
take up to a month for a sloth to digest one meal. Their leafy diet isn't very
nutritious though, so they don't get much energy from it. This may be why
sloths are so slow. Leaves, their main food source, provide very little energy
or nutrients, and do not digest easily. Sloths, therefore, have large,
specialized, slow-acting stomachs with multiple compartments in which symbiotic bacteria break down the tough leaves. This may be
why sloths are so slow
Sloths' tongues have the
unique ability to protrude from their mouths 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 cm), an
ability that is useful for collecting leaves just out of reach. As much as
two-thirds of a well-fed sloth's body weight consists of the contents of its
stomach, and the digestive process can take a month or more to complete. Since leaves provide little energy, sloths deal with this
by a range of economy measures: they have very low metabolic rates (less than
half of that expected for a mammal of their size), and maintain low body
temperatures when active (30–34 °C or 86–93 °F), and still lower temperatures
when resting.
Adopted from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloth
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