SLOTH

Sloths are medium-sized mammals which live in Central and South America belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae. They are omnivores. They have extraordinary adaptations to an arboreal browsing lifestyle. Sloths mainly live in Cecropia trees.

Diet:
Their diet consists of insects, small lizards and carrion, but they also include buds, tender shoots, and leaves. At night they eat leaves, shoots, and fruit and get almost all of their water from juicy plants.

Digestive Process:
Sloths are having very large, specialized, slow-acting stomachs with many segments in which the bacteria’s inside break down the tough leaves and the digestive process of it can take as long as a month or more to complete.

Body temperature:
Sloths normally maintain low body temperatures when they are active (30 to 34 degrees Celsius or 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit), and when resting even lower temperatures.

Identification

Claws:
They are identified by the number of long, prominent claws, which is appeared on each front foot. We can find two-toed and three-toed sloths also.

Strong Grip:
They almost spend their time aloft, hanging in branches with a powerful grip with their long claws. (Dead sloths have been known to retain their grip and remain suspended from a branch.)

Sleeping Habit:
Most of the time they sleep in trees for about 15 to 20 hours every day. Even when they are awake they normally remain static.

Swimmers:
They couldn't be clumsier on land and they are surprisingly good swimmers. They fall directly from trees into rivers and stroke efficiently with their long arms.

Three-toed Sloth:
Three-toed sloths also have an advantage that few other mammals possess: They have extra neck vertebrae that allows them to turn their heads some 270 degrees.