Gioca STEMAnimals

Animals · Rainforest and jungle

Sloth

Bradypus variegatus

The mammal that made slowness a profession

A brown-throated sloth hanging from a branch by its front claws, the position it spends almost its whole life in.
A brown-throated sloth hanging from a branch by its front claws, the position it spends almost its whole life in.
  • Status: Safe
  • Rainforest from Honduras to Bolivia, up to 4,000 feet

Numbers

Weight
9,5 lbfrom 5 to 14 lb
Length
24 infrom 17 to 31 in
Lifespan
20 yearsfrom 10 to 20 years
Hours of sleep
18 a dayfrom 15 to 18
Claws
3 infront limbs
Trip to the ground
8 daysjust once

Ten fun facts

  1. It has no incisors and no canines: it strips leaves with hard lips and grinds them with peg-shaped molars.

  2. Its internal organs are tied to its ribs by fibrous attachments, so they do not crush the lungs when it hangs upside down.

  3. Droppings and urine can add up to a third of its body weight before it climbs down from the tree.

  4. It swims three times faster than it walks, using the same slow arm stroke it uses on branches.

  5. Its body temperature drops with the weather, more like a reptile than like most mammals.

  6. The algae in its coat are found nowhere else, and moths lay their eggs in its droppings.

  7. It can turn its head almost all the way around, thanks to extra bones in the neck.

  8. A meal of leaves can take a month to digest, longer than in any other mammal.

  9. its grip is so strong that a sloth which has died can stay hanging from its branch for days.

  10. Newborns cling to their mother's belly for months and learn which leaves to eat from her.

The quiz answers

The first one is the question printed in your book: here is the answer. The other four are extra.

Question 1 of 5★ this one is in your book

How many hours a day does the brown-throated sloth sleep?

Question 2 of 5

Why does a sloth move so slowly?

Question 3 of 5

What grows in a sloth's coat?

Question 4 of 5

How often does a sloth climb down to the ground?

Question 5 of 5

Which teeth does a sloth not have?

Try it yourself

Experiment 1

Measure three inches on a ruler: that is the length of a sloth's front claws. Now compare it with the length of your open hand.

Experiment 2

Time yourself moving across a room at thirteen feet a minute, the speed of a sloth on a branch. Try to keep it up for five minutes.

Experiment 3

Weigh a backpack until it reaches a third of your own weight: that is what a sloth carries before it climbs down to the ground.

Data from Wikidata (Q148752) and Wikipedia (Brown-throated sloth).