Sloths spend their lives hanging from trees—eating, mating, and even giving birth.
The sloth is the world's slowest mammal, so sedentary that algae
grows on its furry coat. The plant gives it a greenish tint that is
useful camouflage in the trees of its Central and South American rain
forest home.
Sloths are identified by the number of long,
prominent claws that they have on each front foot. There are both
two-toed and three-toed sloths.
All sloths are built for life in
the treetops. They spend nearly all of their time aloft, hanging from
branches with a powerful grip aided by their long claws. (Dead sloths
have been known to retain their grip and remain suspended in the air.)
Sloths even sleep in trees, and they sleep a lot—some 15 to 20 hours
every day. Even when awake they often remain motionless, and two-toed
sloths are generally silent. At night they eat leaves, shoots, and fruit
from the trees and get almost all of their water from juicy plants.
