Three-toed Sloth

Lazy, slow moving three-toed sloths have fascinating habits.

Three-toed sloths are mammals that live in trees and are native to Central and northern areas of South America.
Three-toed sloths are from the Bradypodidae family and are the sole members, and their scientific name is Bradypus, of which there are four species.
The average movement speed of three-toed sloths is 0.24 kilometres per hour (0.15 miles per hour) and they are deemed the slowest moving mammal on earth.
Three-toed sloths have a typical lifespan of 25 to 30 years, and grow to be 45 to 58 centimetres (18 to 23 inches) in length, and 3.5 to 4.5 kilograms (8 to 10 pounds) in weight.
Although similar, three-toed sloths are in a different family to the two-toed sloths, both of which are distantly related to anteaters, and the differences include three-toed having three fingered hands and a short tail, while the quantity of toes is the same.

Three-toed sloths are generally more active during daylight, unlike two-toed sloths, spending most of their time in trees, and they do not move efficiently on the ground and therefore only visit the ground approximately once a week, mostly for toileting purposes, to avoid predators like large members of the cat family.
Three-toed sloths have a brown, black or white variegated fur colour, often mottled with green algae that grows on their fur, and their colourings provide camouflage among trees.
Three-toed sloths can sleep up to 20 hours a day, communicate with long ‘ah-ee’ sounds, and are able to rotate their head up to 270 degrees due to their additional neck vertebrae.
Three-toed sloths’ legs lack significant muscle and therefore use front claws to drag themselves along or to cling to branches, but they are efficient swimmers.
Individual three-toed sloths are typically dedicated to a single tree species, moving up to four times from tree to tree during the day, and their diet consists primarily of leaves, fruit and sprouting twigs, though digestion is a slow process, and a meal can take as long as a month to fully digest.

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