Why Sloths Are Awesome

• Why Are Sloths Great Swimmers

Sloths are the world's only inverted quadrupeds, hanging from the trees of the tropical rainforests of South and Central America. Their toe bones are not separately movable, but bound together by ligaments, which along with their curved claws act as efficient hooks for dangling upside down. They're Not Always Slow. Recent studies have shown that sloths are actually twice as active as. Amazing creatures. Grace, intelligence, courage, agility, utter beauty None of these attributes have ever been. Besides, feeding on leaves is another reason why sloths are so slow. Leaves provide few nutrients and energy, so the sloth cannot spend too much energy with such a limited diet. Sloth Metabolism and Feeding As sloths base their diet on leaves, they have evolved to function on a very slow metabolism. Their stomach is divided into several. For the most part, there's nothing all that unusual here. The videos spend a couple of minutes describing something we're all familiar with, before shifting to the moral lesson we can take from it. A video about why scary spiders can actually help us out, for example, becomes a lesson about God can sometimes use bad things for good reasons.

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Sloth, (suborder Phyllophaga), tree-dwelling mammal noted for its slowness of movement. All five living species are limited to the lowland tropical forests of South and Central America, where they can be found high in the forest canopy sunning, resting, or feeding on leaves. Although two-toed sloths (family Megalonychidae) are capable of climbing and positioning themselves vertically, they spend almost all of their time hanging horizontally, using their large hooklike extremities to move along branches and vines. Three-toed sloths (family Bradypodidae) move in the same way but often sit in the forks of trees rather than hanging from branches.

What kind of animal is a sloth?

Sloths are mammals. They are part of the order Pilosa, which is also home to anteaters. Together with armadillos, sloths and anteaters form the magnorder Xenarthra.

How many types of sloths are there?

A total of five species of sloths exist: the pygmy three-toed sloth, the maned sloth, the pale-throated three-toed sloth, the brown-throated three-toed sloth, and Linnaeus's two-toed sloth. All sloths are either two-toed or three-toed.

Where do sloths live?

Sloths live in the lowland tropical areas of South and Central America. They spend most of their life in the forest canopy. Two-toed sloths tend to hang horizontally from branches, while three-toed sloths often sit in the forks of trees.

What do sloths eat?

Sloths are omnivores. Zulospizzajax. Because they spend most of their time in trees, they like to munch on leaves, twigs, flowers, and other foliage, though some species may eat insects and other small animals.

Why are sloths so slow?

Sloths are slow because of their diet and metabolic rate. They eat a low-calorie diet consisting exclusively of plants, and they metabolize at a rate that is only 40–45 percent of what is expected for mammals of their weight. Sloths must move slowly to conserve energy.

Sloths have long legs, stumpy tails, and rounded heads with inconspicuous ears. Although they possess colour vision, sloths' eyesight and hearing are not very acute; orientation is mainly by touch. The limbs are adapted for suspending the body rather than supporting it. As a result, sloths are completely helpless on the ground unless there is something to grasp. Even then, they are able only to drag themselves along with their claws. They are surprisingly good swimmers. Generally nocturnal, sloths are solitary and are aggressive toward others of the same sex.

Sloths have large multichambered stomachs and an ability to tolerate strong chemicals from the foliage they eat. The leafy food is digested slowly; a fermenting meal may take up to a week to process. The stomach is constantly filled, its contents making up about 30 percent of the sloth's weight. Sloths descend to the ground at approximately six-day intervals to urinate and defecate (see Sidebar: A moving habitat). Physiologically, sloths are heterothermic—that is, they have imperfect control over their body temperature. Normally ranging between 25 and 35 °C (77 and 95 °F), body temperature may drop to as low as 20 °C (68 °F). At this temperature the animals become torpid. Although heterothermicity makes sloths very sensitive to temperature change, they have thick skin and are able to withstand severe injuries.

All sloths were formerly classified in the same family (Bradypodidae), but two-toed sloths have been found to be so different from three-toed sloths that they are now classified in a separate family (Megalonychidae).

Three-toed sloths

The three-toed sloth (family Bradypodidae) is also called the ai in Latin America because of the high-pitched cry it produces when agitated. All four species belong to the same genus, Bradypus, and the coloration of their short facial hair bestows them with a perpetually smiling expression. The brown-throated three-toed sloth (B. variegatus) occurs in Central and South America from Honduras to northern Argentina; the pale-throated three-toed sloth (B. tridactylus) is found in northern South America; the maned sloth (B. torquatus) is restricted to the small Atlantic forest of southeastern Brazil; and the pygmy three-toed sloth (B. pygmaeus) inhabits the Isla Escudo de Veraguas, a small Caribbean island off the northwestern coast of Panama.

Although most mammals have seven neck vertebrae, three-toed sloths have eight or nine, which permits them to turn their heads through a 270° arc. The teeth are simple pegs, and the upper front pair are smaller than the others; incisor and true canine teeth are lacking. Adults weigh only about 4 kg (8.8 pounds), and the young weigh less than 1 kg (2.2 pounds), possibly as little as 150–250 grams (about 5–9 ounces) at birth. (The birth weight of B. torquatus, for example, is only 300 grams [about 11 ounces].) The head and body length of three-toed sloths averages 58 cm (23 inches), and the tail is short, round, and movable. The forelimbs are 50 percent longer than the hind limbs; all four feet have three long, curved sharp claws. Sloths' coloration makes them difficult to spot, even though they are very common in some areas. The outer layer of shaggy long hair is pale brown to gray and covers a short, dense coat of black-and-white underfur. The outer hairs have many cracks, perhaps caused by the algae living there. The algae give the animals a greenish tinge, especially during the rainy season. Sexes look alike in the maned sloth, but in the other species males have a large patch (speculum) in the middle of the back that lacks overhair, thus revealing the black dorsal stripe and bordering white underfur, which is sometimes stained yellow to orange. The maned sloth gets its name from the long black hair on the back of its head and neck.

Sloth, (suborder Phyllophaga), tree-dwelling mammal noted for its slowness of movement. All five living species are limited to the lowland tropical forests of South and Central America, where they can be found high in the forest canopy sunning, resting, or feeding on leaves. Although two-toed sloths (family Megalonychidae) are capable of climbing and positioning themselves vertically, they spend almost all of their time hanging horizontally, using their large hooklike extremities to move along branches and vines. Three-toed sloths (family Bradypodidae) move in the same way but often sit in the forks of trees rather than hanging from branches.

What kind of animal is a sloth?

Sloths are mammals. They are part of the order Pilosa, which is also home to anteaters. Together with armadillos, sloths and anteaters form the magnorder Xenarthra.

How many types of sloths are there?

A total of five species of sloths exist: the pygmy three-toed sloth, the maned sloth, the pale-throated three-toed sloth, the brown-throated three-toed sloth, and Linnaeus's two-toed sloth. All sloths are either two-toed or three-toed.

Where do sloths live?

Sloths live in the lowland tropical areas of South and Central America. They spend most of their life in the forest canopy. Two-toed sloths tend to hang horizontally from branches, while three-toed sloths often sit in the forks of trees.

What do sloths eat?

Sloths are omnivores. Zulospizzajax. Because they spend most of their time in trees, they like to munch on leaves, twigs, flowers, and other foliage, though some species may eat insects and other small animals.

Why are sloths so slow?

Sloths are slow because of their diet and metabolic rate. They eat a low-calorie diet consisting exclusively of plants, and they metabolize at a rate that is only 40–45 percent of what is expected for mammals of their weight. Sloths must move slowly to conserve energy.

Sloths have long legs, stumpy tails, and rounded heads with inconspicuous ears. Although they possess colour vision, sloths' eyesight and hearing are not very acute; orientation is mainly by touch. The limbs are adapted for suspending the body rather than supporting it. As a result, sloths are completely helpless on the ground unless there is something to grasp. Even then, they are able only to drag themselves along with their claws. They are surprisingly good swimmers. Generally nocturnal, sloths are solitary and are aggressive toward others of the same sex.

Sloths have large multichambered stomachs and an ability to tolerate strong chemicals from the foliage they eat. The leafy food is digested slowly; a fermenting meal may take up to a week to process. The stomach is constantly filled, its contents making up about 30 percent of the sloth's weight. Sloths descend to the ground at approximately six-day intervals to urinate and defecate (see Sidebar: A moving habitat). Physiologically, sloths are heterothermic—that is, they have imperfect control over their body temperature. Normally ranging between 25 and 35 °C (77 and 95 °F), body temperature may drop to as low as 20 °C (68 °F). At this temperature the animals become torpid. Although heterothermicity makes sloths very sensitive to temperature change, they have thick skin and are able to withstand severe injuries.

All sloths were formerly classified in the same family (Bradypodidae), but two-toed sloths have been found to be so different from three-toed sloths that they are now classified in a separate family (Megalonychidae).

Three-toed sloths

The three-toed sloth (family Bradypodidae) is also called the ai in Latin America because of the high-pitched cry it produces when agitated. All four species belong to the same genus, Bradypus, and the coloration of their short facial hair bestows them with a perpetually smiling expression. The brown-throated three-toed sloth (B. variegatus) occurs in Central and South America from Honduras to northern Argentina; the pale-throated three-toed sloth (B. tridactylus) is found in northern South America; the maned sloth (B. torquatus) is restricted to the small Atlantic forest of southeastern Brazil; and the pygmy three-toed sloth (B. pygmaeus) inhabits the Isla Escudo de Veraguas, a small Caribbean island off the northwestern coast of Panama.

Although most mammals have seven neck vertebrae, three-toed sloths have eight or nine, which permits them to turn their heads through a 270° arc. The teeth are simple pegs, and the upper front pair are smaller than the others; incisor and true canine teeth are lacking. Adults weigh only about 4 kg (8.8 pounds), and the young weigh less than 1 kg (2.2 pounds), possibly as little as 150–250 grams (about 5–9 ounces) at birth. (The birth weight of B. torquatus, for example, is only 300 grams [about 11 ounces].) The head and body length of three-toed sloths averages 58 cm (23 inches), and the tail is short, round, and movable. The forelimbs are 50 percent longer than the hind limbs; all four feet have three long, curved sharp claws. Sloths' coloration makes them difficult to spot, even though they are very common in some areas. The outer layer of shaggy long hair is pale brown to gray and covers a short, dense coat of black-and-white underfur. The outer hairs have many cracks, perhaps caused by the algae living there. The algae give the animals a greenish tinge, especially during the rainy season. Sexes look alike in the maned sloth, but in the other species males have a large patch (speculum) in the middle of the back that lacks overhair, thus revealing the black dorsal stripe and bordering white underfur, which is sometimes stained yellow to orange. The maned sloth gets its name from the long black hair on the back of its head and neck.

Three-toed sloths, although mainly nocturnal, may be active day or night but spend only about 10 percent of their time moving at all. They sleep either perched in the fork of a tree or hanging from a branch, with all four feet bunched together and the head tucked in on the chest. In this posture the sloth resembles a clump of dead leaves, so inconspicuous that it was once thought these animals ate only the leaves of cecropia trees because in other trees it went undetected. Research has since shown that they eat the foliage of a wide variety of other trees and vines. Locating food by touch and smell, the sloth feeds by hooking a branch with its claws and pulling it to its mouth. Sloths' slow movements and mainly nocturnal habits generally do not attract the attention of predators such as jaguars and harpy eagles. Normally, three-toed sloths are silent and docile, but if disturbed they can strike out furiously with the sharp foreclaws.

Reproduction is seasonal in the brown- and pale-throated species; the maned sloth may breed throughout the year. Reproduction in pygmy three-toed sloths, however, has not yet been observed. A single young is born after less than six months' gestation. Newborn sloths cling to the mother's abdomen and remain with the mother until at least five months of age. Three-toed sloths are so difficult to maintain in captivity that little is known about their breeding behaviour and other aspects of their life history.

A new animated film, opening this weekend, marks a hugely significant moment in modern pop culture. The Croods, a comedy about the travails of a Paleolithic family, features a cuddly pet sloth—yet another (very) slow but sure step in the sloth's path to complete world domination.

The evidence is incontrovertible. The Google trends graph of searches for the term 'sloth' was once a series of modest peaks and valleys, reflecting the fluctuating interest in the animal (or deadly sin). Then everything changed. Interest now is historically high; earlier this week, BuzzFeed published its epic list of the 25 Greatest Sloths the Internet Has Ever Seen.

Domination in action at The Croods premiere:

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While unimaginable today, there actually was a time when sloths were not cute. In 1985, the most significant sloth was this scary-looking character from a popular kid's movie .

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWr30uoSCrw]

With Ice Age movies, the first of which came out in 2002, the primary pop-culture association shifted to an actual sloth — a prehistoric ground sloth named Sid. Voiced by John Leguizamo, he is one of the franchise's central characters, but he's not very huggable.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMRHiz2r1UU]

So what happened?

The event that most people associate with the explosive popularity of sloths was the January 2012 appearance of actress (and avowed sloth lover) Kristen Bell on Ellen DeGeneres' popular daytime talk show. Bell's endearing meltdown (recounting the story of her boyfriend's best-ever birthday gift) sent interest in tree-hanging cuteness to new highs—as evidenced on the Google graph.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5jw3T3Jy70]

However, intrepid Internet sleuthing turns up a significant moment that took place a few months earlier. It seems in May 2o11, someone posted on YouTube a clip showing a sloth crossing a road to 'I Believe I Can Fly' — subsequently watched by more than 7 million people.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba7rRfKIHxU]

But, these events give us an incomplete picture.

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To find the full story, we went to a real expert: Lucy Cooke, founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society, author of the new book A Little Book of Sloth (Mar. 5) and the woman whose website reminds visitors that The Atlantic dubbed her 'the Steven Spielberg of sloth filmmaking.' (Evidence below.) She's also behind Animal Planet's Too Cute! Baby Sloths and has lent her expertise (and animal connections) to Vice's The Cute Showand an upcoming Animal Planet sloth-centric series airing this fall. (She's also helped create an as soon-to-be-released adopt-a-sloth app she hopes will educate those wanting to adopt sloths as pets — which is a major no-no.)

Cooke has a zoology background and says she has always loved underdog animals; the sloth was a natural object for her affection. She visited a sloth sanctuary in 2010—and that moment turned into what we will dub Sloth Lift-Off, day one in cute-sloth history. 'The sloth really is the most misunderstood animal out there, having been named after one of the seven deadly sins,' she says. 'The sloth seemed like it needed somebody to battle its cause.'

She does the usual zoologist work of educating sloth fans about the animals—which she says are naturally friendly, especially the three-fingered type. (More fun facts: sloths are physiologically built to hug, are smarter than you think, go to the sloth-bathroom only once a week, and only spend about six seconds at a time mating.) Vvip station.

But it turns out there's a reason why a serious animal-lover like Cooke would spend so much time talking about what is a seemingly frivolous subject: popular animals get more money for their conservation. Five hundred times more funding goes to so-called 'charismatic megafauna'—the bigger animals we think are cute or human-like or smart, like whales and elephants and tigers—than goes to endangered amphibians that may need it more, Cooke says. So she set out on a mission to make the world think sloths are awesome. 'Conservation isn't immune to the vagaries of fashion,' she says. 'That's why I do what I do.'

Obviously, she has succeeded. (Perhaps more than anyone has succeeded at anything. Ever.)

But Cooke says her work is not yet done. We think sloths are cute now, but we have not yet allowed them to fully infiltrate our minds—though we'll be better off once we realize that resistance is futile. 'They have a terrific message for us humans,' Cooke says, 'and that is to slow down.'

Why Are Sloths Great Swimmers

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8b5v4USEWY]