It’s a Sloth’s Life
Sloths were introduced into my life when I stumbled upon a video called Meet the sloths. This video was made by Lucy Cooke who filmed the video while visiting the world’s only sloth sanctuary located in Costa Rica. Right away, I fell in love with these odd-looking creatures. Sloths are becoming more popular in the media from celebrities, the Internet, and even their own documentary featured on Animal Planet. Now endangered, the sloth needs to become a household name in order to help them. Here is the adorably cute video and under are some interesting facts about the sloth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8b5v4USEWY
- There are two different types of sloths: two-toed and three-toed. Two-toed sloths use their time hanging upside-down in trees, while the three-toed sloth sits upright.
- Sloths reside in tropical forests in South and Central America.
- They are considered the world’s slowest mammal, so slow that algae grows on their fur.
- Sloths can sleep from 15 to 20 hours a day- what a life!
- Three-toed sloths have two extra vertebras on their necks, which gives them the ability to turn their heads 270 degrees around. The exorcist mammal!
- Sloths are clumsy on the ground so they rarely come down from trees, but sloths can be excellent swimmers.
- About once a week, sloths will come down from the trees only to go to the bathroom.
- Sloths eat, mate, and even give birth in trees.
- The sloth usually eats a diet consisting of leaves and fruit.
- International sloth day is October 20th.
- There is a captive sloth that is over 20 years old.
- Sloths are mostly peaceful creatures, but if they are caught by a predator they attack using: biting, claw gashing, hissing, and shrieking.
- A dead sloth can hold its grip to a tree; that’s how strong of a grip they have!
- There is a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica that rescues and cares for more than 150 sloths.
Hope this article was enlightening into the world of sloths!
Here are some pictures of sloths just for fun. Enjoy :)
Information gathered from Nationalgeographic.com