Size: Weight 4 to 8 kg. Length 21 to 29 inches.

Habitat and Distribution: The Two-toed Sloth is found in tropical moist lowland and montane forest throughout Venezuela, the Guianas and the northernmost parts of Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.

Age: The average life span of two-toed sloth is 20 years in the wild, but ages of 30 to 40 years have been recorded in captivity.

Groups and Breeding: This species is solitary and arboreal, meaning that they live mostly on their own coming together only to breed, spending most of their time in trees.

Female sloths reach sexual maturity quicker than males at 3 years of age whereas males don’t mature until around 5 years. After a gestation of 6 months a female will give birth to a single young measuring 10 inches and weighing only 10 ounces. The young cling to their mother’s belly for a few weeks until they have strength enough to move around on their own.

Diet: Sloths primarily eat vegetation such as leaves, twigs and fruits; however, they have been known to eat insects and other small prey.

• Despite their appearance, sloths are actually quite good swimmers. This enables them to cross rivers and creeks.
• Sloths are related to armadillos and anteaters, all of whom lack canine and incisor front teeth. In fact sloths only usually have 18 teeth which grow constantly and only get worn down by eating! To compensate for their lack of teeth, this species has hardened lips to allow them to grasp and eat leaves.
• Unlike a human’s, the temperature of a healthy sloth can vary by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit, changing according to the surrounding temperature.
• A sloth’s fur hangs in the opposite direction to most animals’ and each strand has grooves in it, which allows rain to drip easily off their fur and lets algae collect. This gives sloths a greenish appearance, which means they are camouflaged from predators.
• They descend to the ground only to change trees (food source) or to defecate (poo). They have such a slow metabolism that they only defecate once a week and an item of food may remain in their digestive tract for up to a month.
• These sloths are primarily nocturnal, sleeping for up to 15 hours during the day and waking during the night only to feed.