Sloth predators10/25/2022 ![]() ![]() Half the Muscle, Half the Speed: Sloths move only when necessary and then very slowly: they have about half as much muscle tissue as other animals of similar weight. Strange Stomach: 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 as long as a month or more to complete.Įven so, leaves provide little energy, and sloths deal with this by a range of economy measures: they have very low metabolic rates (less than half of that expected for a creature of their size), and maintain high body temperatures when active (40 to 44 degrees Celsius), and still lower temperatures when resting. ![]() Sloths may also eat insects and small lizards and carrion. Leaves, their main food source, provide very little energy or nutrition and do not digest easily: sloths have very large, specialized, slow-acting stomachs with multiple compartments in which symbiotic bacteria break down the tough leaves. Their claws also provide a further unexpected defense from human hunters - when hanging upside-down in a tree they are held in place by the claws themselves and do not fall down even if shot from below, thus making them not worth shooting in the first place.Īmazing Adaptations: Sloths have made extraordinary adaptations to an arboreal browsing lifestyle. Despite their adaptation to living in trees, sloths make competent swimmers. The majority of sloth deaths in Costa Rica are from sloths getting into electrical lines and from poachers. Sloth Hunters: The main predators of sloths are the jaguar, the harpy eagle, and humans. Only during their infrequent visits to ground level do they become vulnerable. Despite sloths' apparent defenselessness, predators do not pose special problems: in the trees sloths have good camouflage and, moving only slowly, do not attract attention. A cornered sloth may swipe at its attackers in an effort to scare them away or wound them. Watch Out for the Claw: Their claws also serve as their only natural defense. Sloths have short, flat heads, big eyes, a short snout, long legs, and tiny ears. The bacteria provide nutrients to the sloth, and are licked. Their outer fur coat is usually a thick brown, but occasionally wild sloths appear to have a green tinge to their fur because of the presence of these bacteria. pointing away from their extremities (so as to provide protection from the elements despite living legs-uppermost), and in moist conditions host two species of symbiotic cyanobacteria, which may provide camouflage. Just the Facts: Sloth fur also exhibits specialized functions: the outer hairs grow in the opposite direction to that of other mammals, i.e. Sloths are herbivores, eating very little other than leaves. Most scientists call these two families the Folivora suborder, while some call it Phyllophaga. A camouflaged coat and slow movement make sloths hard to see among the leaves.Sloths are medium-sized South American mammals belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, part of the order Pilosa. The sloth's main defense against predators is to claw and nip at an attacker. Predators: The jaguar and harpy eagle are the main predators of sloths. ![]() It eats leaves, tender young shoots, and fruit. Many sloths have colonies of green algae encrusting their fur, camouflaging the sloth in its forest environment.īehavior: The sloth is an herbivore (a plant-eater) that eats at night. They have a short, flat head, big eyes, a short snout, a short or non-existent tail, long legs, and tiny ears. The sloth is nocturnal (most active at night), and it sleeps about 15 hours each day.Īnatomy: Sloths have a thick brown (and slightly-greenish) fur coat and are about the size of a cat (roughly 2 feet = 61 cm long). This arboreal (tree-living) mammal is found in the tropical rain forests of South and Central America. The Three-Toed Sloth, Bradypus tridactylus, is a slow-moving, nocturnal mammal that spends its entire life hanging upside-down in trees. Rainforest Glossary - W: Zoom Rainforests Rainforest Glossary - S: Zoom Rainforests is a user-supported site.Īs a bonus, site members have access to a banner-ad-free version of the site, with print-friendly pages. ![]()
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