Where do Sloths Live

Where do Sloths Live

Sloth is the sluggish tree-dwellers mammal that live Central and South America. They prefer to spend the most of their time by hanging from the trees in the tropical rain forests. Sloth gets their common name for their slow movement that is about 40 yards per day.

Two different types of sloths are found- two-toed sloth that belongs to the family Megalonychidae and the three-toed sloth that belongs to the family Bradypodidae.

There are six extant species of sloth. They are as follows: -

·       Maned sloth (Bradypus torquatus)

·       Pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus)

·       Brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus)

·       Pale-throated sloth (Bradypus tridactylus)

·       Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni)

·       Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus)

Maned sloth

The maned sloths were found north of the Atlantic forest but now they live in the Atlantic Coastal rainforest of southeastern part of Brazil.

As the maned sloths eat a different types of leaves, they prefer to live in semi deciduous and secondary forests. They like to live in hot, humid climates where annual rainfall is 120 centimeters.

Maned sloth is pale brown in color. The length of their body is 50cm to 70cm and the weight is 4kg to 7.5kg. Female maned sloth is slight large in size. They get their common name for a mane of black hair which run down over their shoulder and neck. Their ears are covered with fur.

Maned sloth spends most of their time by sleeping on the branches of the trees. They hang upside down from the tree branches by keeping their head in between the front legs.

As the maned sloth is a herbivorous, they consume mainly leaves of Liana and Cecropia. They can’t stand or walk so they only drag themselves by using their front legs and claws. They are good swimmer.

Maned sloths are threatened and their numbers are reduced due to timber extraction, poaching, charcoal production and also deforestation. In captivity, maned sloth can live up to 12 years.

Where do Pale-throated sloths live

Pale-throated sloth or ai is a three-toed sloth species, native to tropical rainforests in northern part of South America. They mainly live in Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, eastern part of Venezuela and also in Brazil.

Pale-throated sloth is blackish-grey in color. The dark patches are shown on their back, hip and shoulder. They get their common name for the yellow patch on their throat. Their large eyes have no cone cells in their retina so they cannot see the color. Their small external ears are located either side of their rounded head. They have very well hearing and sense of smell. The color of their long tongue is pink in color.

Pale-throated sloth is an herbivorous so their main diet is leaves. They also eat fruits, buds, green twigs etc. from Cecropia, Hevea or Ceiba trees.

Pale-throated sloths hang from the branches of trees with their claws stuck and move very slowly through the tree canopy. They prefer to spend 18 hours per day by sleeping. In the wild, Pale-throated sloths can live up to 40 years.

Where do Pygmy three-toed sloths live

The pygmy three-toed sloth or dwarf sloth or monk sloth is native to Isla Escudo de Veraguas, an isolated Caribbean island of Panama. This island is about 4.3 square kilometers. These world’s rarest species live exclusively in the red mangrove trees.

The pygmy three-toed sloth is smaller species among the other members of its genus. The length of their body is about 48cm to 53cm and weight can be reach 2.5kg to 3.5kg. This arboreal, herbivorous animal like to eat red mangrove leaves. They spend 15hr to 20 hours per day on the branches of the trees.

The color of their coat is dark brown but the underpart of the body is lighter. Dark stripes are present along their backbone and their back has spots. The color of their face is tan and a light brown band present on the upper side of the brows. Their feet have three toes with sharp, long claws.

They are the slowest animal and can move only 0.24km per hour. Their smaller size and slow movement help them to reduce their energy requirement for surviving.

Tricepnilus species, which is green algae, found in the fur of the pygmy three-toed sloths that gives the fur a greenish look which help the sloth to camouflage.

The pygmy three-toed sloth is listed as Critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are endangered due to timber harvesting and urbanization that lead to loss of their habitat. Their numbers are reduced for diseases and other natural causes. In captivity, pygmy three-toed sloth can live up to 40 years.

Where do Brown-throated sloths live

Brown-throated sloth is native to the forest of Central America and South America. It is the most common and widespread three-toed sloth species. Brown-throated sloths live in Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela, eastern part of Peru, Brazil and Colombia. Once they were endemic to Argentina but now they are not found in this country.

Brown-throated sloths prefer to live evergreen and dry forests, semi-deciduous forests, cloud forests.

Brown-throated sloth is greyish-brown in color with rounded head and blunt nose. It has blackish-brown fur on the forehead, both side of its face and also on its throat. The weight of the adult brown-throated sloth is 2.5kg to 6.5kg and the length of their body is 40cm to 80 cm. Some organs like appendix, cecum and gall bladder are absent in their body.

Brown-throated sloth is an herbivorous and can eat young leaves from different types of trees. They spend 15 to 18 hours by sleeping on the tree.

Where do Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths live

Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth or southern two-toed sloth is native to South America. They live in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana. Their range expands into Bolivia. The Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths are also found in the south to the central Amazon basin. They prefer to live high canopy of the tropical rain forests.

Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth is 60cm to 70cm long and weight can reach 8kg. Its body is covered with greyish-brown fur. Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth is the slowest mammal on the earth.

Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths hang down upside from the tree branches and spend 15 to 20 hours per day by sleeping. They are more active at night. They are silent animals but can emit sounds like his, cry or moans when are threatened. They defend themselves from the predators by camouflaging or use claws and teeth.

As Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths are herbivorous, they eat leaves, fruits, green twigs and other vegetation. They are hunted for their meat, fur and claws. In captivity, Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths can live over 20 years.

Where do Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths live

Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth is an arboreal, nocturnal animal, native to Central and South America. Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths live in tropical forests. One population live in eastern part of Honduras and their range expands to the western part of Ecuador. The another population lives in the western part of Brazil, northern part of Bolivia and eastern part of Peru.

Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths prefer to live in secondary rainforests and deciduous forests.

Five subspecies of Choloepus hoffmanni are found. They are as follows:

·       C. h. hoffmanni

·       C. h. pallescens

·       C. h. capitalis

·       C. h. agustinus

·       C. h. juruanus

The subspecies C. h. hoffmanni is found in Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica.
The subspecies C. h. pallescens is found in Peru.
The subspecies C. h. capitalis is found in western Ecuador.
The subspecies C. h. agustinus is found in northern Ecuador, Venezuela and western Colombia.
The subspecies C. h. juruanus is found in eastern Peru, Brazil and Bolivia.

Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth gets its common name for the German naturalist Karl Hoffmann.

Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth is 55cm to 70cm long and weight will be 2kg to 9kg. Their tail is very short, only 1.5cm to 3cm long. Their body is covered with long pale brown or tan colored fur but the color of their face is lighter than their body. Their long fur protects them from rain and the heat of the sun. Their fore feet have two toes but the hind feet have three toes. Their four feet have sharp, long claws which are 5cm to 6cm long. Their snout set them apart from other three-toed sloth species.

Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth spend most of their time on the tree but come down on the ground for urination, defecation or climbing on a new tree to live. In captivity, Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth can live up to 42 years.

The meaning of the word “sloth” is “lazy”. Their slow movement is a kind of adaptation for their surviving as they consume leaves which give them low-energy. Their hearing and eyesight are not good so they find food by depending on their sense of touch and sense of smell. They spend most of their lives by hanging upside down from the branches of the trees and can sleep, eat, mate and give birth the babies in this hanging position. Their fur flows from their belly to top so the rainwater slide off the fur when they hanging upside down from the trees.