A Tropical Journey

Sloths are par excellence the "laziest" from the animal kingdom, but what if I told you there's a biological explanation for it? These mammals from the tropical rainforests of Central and South America have a rather low metabolism, which results in slow movements not only externally, but internally. Consequently, they can sleep up to 15-20h per day, their digestive system takes 28 days to break down a single leaf and, they go to the bathroom approximately once a week. Eventhough their slow motion is their most widely-known characteristic, these tree-dwelling animals are excellent swimmers and can move three times faster than they do on the ground and, they can actually move fast when feeling immediate danger. Not so slow after all, right? As I've said before, sloths are tree-dwelling animals, which means that trees serves them as shelter and as food source, consequently, deforestation and urbanization poses a dangerous threat to them. Have you ever thought about the effect power lines, farms, plantations... have in wildlife, such as sloths?

• Sloths belong to the Xenarthra family, making them half-siblings of the armadillos.
• There are 6 species and two different types: "Two-fingered sloths" and "Three-fingered sloths".
• The extinct giant ground sloths were some of the only mammals that could digest the whole seed of an avocado. If they hadn't dispersed it, it's quite possible that today's avocado production would be significantly smaller.
• The word “sloth” comes from the Middle English word slouthe or slewthe, meaning “laziness”. In fact, in most languages the name “sloth” is equivalent to some form of slowness, lateness, indolence, or laziness.
• Sloths are anatomically design to fall out of trees without injury. For instance, females who are about to go into labour descend to the lowest branch, so in case the baby were to fall off it wouldn't get hurt.