How Sloths Reproduce
Sloths are mammals found in South and Central America. They hang to the tree branches with their long claws. They survive on leaves. Their long claws make it difficult for them to walk on the ground. Hence, they spend a lot of time on trees.
There are two kinds of sloths; Two-toed and three-toed. They share most of the features but vary in size.
Table of Contents
Sloths only leave their trees once a week to go to the toilet. Sloths are not fit as domestic pets. A female sloth could reproduce as early as the age of 3 while men between 4-5. There are 2 varieties of sloth and it comes in 6 species. Sloths are antisocial animals. A sloth hangs its claws in tree branches to sleep.
- 11 Sloths Characteristics
Sloths mate between Semptember and November, which is the dry season in the atlantic forest. The pregnancy lasts for six to eleven months and results in only one offspring per year. The sloth gives birth hanging upside-down in a tree, and the newborn sloth crawls up onto its mother's stomach. The newborn sloth is born already very well developed. Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) (Conservation status: Least Concern) Two-toed sloths are slightly larger and faster-moving than three-toed sloths. They are around 60 cm – 70 cm (24 – 28″) in length, and weigh about 6 kg (13 pounds).
Sloths Facts and Information
- Sloths are the slowest animals in the world.
- Algae grow on the fur of sloths. The green color of algae make sloths hide from predators in the trees.
- Sloths can climb only six to eight feet per minute.
- Sloths are wonderful swimmers. Sloths drop themselves into the water from the branches.
- Sloths do not shiver when it is cold as their body has only 25% muscle.
- The claws of sloths offer them protection against predators.
- The Scientific Name of the Sloths is Choloepus Hoffmanni
Sloths Diet
Sloths eat leaves which are hard to digest. The leaves are digested slowly in their four-part digestive system. A sloth takes a month to digest a meal of food. Their diet is not nutritious and they do not derive much energy from it.
Sloths are considered folivores as they rely on tender shoots, leaves and buds. Two-toed sloths have been found to eat small reptiles, birds and insects as per few documentations.
Sloths Habitat
Sloths are most commonly found in the rain forests of south and central America. They curl into a ball while sleeping. They also hang from the tree branches. Sloths are not known for activities.
They spend most of their time eating and sleeping. These leave trees only to swim. Sloths that have been kept captive sleep for fifteen to twenty hours per day. This leaves them with little time to indulge in social activities. Sloths prefer leading solo lives.
Sloths Appearance
Sloths have flat, short head, short snout, big eyes, long legs, tiny ears and curved claws. There are two species of sloths. These have either two or three claws. These have sad-looking eyes, stubby tails and roundish heads. Two toed sloths are bigger than the three toed ones. Three toed sloths seem as if they are smiling because of their facial coloring. Sloths can turn their head around because of the two extra vertebrae in the neck.
Behavior
Sloths spend a lot of time hanging from the branches of trees. They sleep, mate and eat in the trees. Their curved, strong claws help them in hanging from the branches of trees. Male sloths are shy, solitary animals. Female sloths indulge in little bit of socializing. They sleep entire day and are active during the night time. Sloths do not move until it is necessary. They defecate and urinate once a week and for this they come to the ground.
Sloths Lifespan
The life expectancy of a sloth varies based on the species. Most of the sloths live for 20 to 30 years. In captivity, there can survive for a longer time. The lifespan of a median sloth is 15 years.
Predators
Humans, the harpy eagle and jaguar are the main predators of sloths. Poachers and electrical lines were responsible for death of sloths in Costa Rica. A sloth can protect itself from camouflage and because of the slow movement. These features let them disappear in the canopy of the rainforest.
Sloths Breeding
Sloth mate and give birth to young ones in trees. Courting begins when a female sloth screams to inform the males in the area that she is ready for mating. Males put up a fight by hanging from the tree branches. They paw at other sloths to be the winner. Sloths just have one offspring at a time.
The gestation period is five to six months. The babies cling to their mothers for several weeks after their birth. They stay with their mothers for up to four years. The mating season is usually during the spring season. In South America, sloths mate during July-November. In Central America, the sloths mate during February-May.
Sloths Lifestyle
Sloths live in dense forests. They spend a lot of time in trees. They climb down once in a week to the base of the tree. They bury the feces in the vicinity of the trees they reside in. Their feces act as a wonderful fertilizer for the trees they reside in. This is because their stool breaks down quite easily.
Images, Pics, Photos and Pictures of Sloths :
Sloths Grooming
Sloths do not groom themselves. They have a dense coat of fur which grows algae. They have a greenish tinge during the rainy season because of the growth of algae. Sloths belly houses several micro bacteria for breaking down the food that they eat and thereby promote digestion.
The digestion process of a sloth is quite slow. It takes about a month for a slot to digest a meal. The metabolism of a sloth is very low. This is why the nutrients extracted from the sloths is slow and the low energy level probably the reason why they are sluggish.
Sloths Characteristics
- Sloths have greenish and thick brown coat of fur.
- They hand from trees with their claws.
- The only defense means for a sloth is its claw.
- A sloth that has been cornered tries to swipe the attackers to scare or wound them.
- Sloths move slowly and hence do not attract attention.
- They are vulnerable only during their visits to the ground that happens once in a week.
- Colonies of algae grow on sloths. This acts as a camouflage and source of nutrients when sloths try to lick their fur.
- In sloths, the hair grows in the opposite direction from other mammals. This is because they spend a lot of time with their legs above their bodies hanging from the tree branches. protection is offered to the sloths with their hair growing from extremities.
- Sloths are four legged animals
- Sloths land on the ground in upright position or else they spend most of the time up-side down hanging from tree branches
- Sloths are home to several creatures such as moths and beetles.
- Sloths are excellent swimmers.
- Sloths have multiple compartment stomachs.
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As a sloth lover, we are sure you see lots of pictures of sloths. While basically all of the pictures of sloths are amazing because the sloths are so cute and interesting, you have probably seen that some sloths look very different from others. This might bring about some questions?
“What are the different species of sloths?”
“How are those species different?”
We’re going to spend some time discussing those different species so that you can become the sloth expert you really want to be.
Two-toes or three?
So, generally scientist designate 6 different species of sloths divided into 2 different varieties:
Three-toed Sloths:
- Maned sloth (Bradypus torquatus)
- Pale-throated sloth (Bradypus tridactylus)
- Brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus)
- Pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus)
Two-toed Sloths:
- Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus)
- Hoffman’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni)
All the Sloths!
There are some things that all sloths share. All sloths are adorable, of course, but beyond that we know that all sloths come from the same clade (a group of animals descended from the same ancient ancestor). The clade that sloths are part of is Xenartha, which also includes some other “strange” animals such as armadillos and anteaters.
Specifically, sloths are part of the suborder the Folivora. Both types of sloth live in the tropical rainforests of Latin America (no sloths are found in the wild in any other part of the world). Their habitat is more specifically in the trees where both types of sloths feed almost exclusively on leaves, though fruit is sometimes part of their diet and even some carnivorous habits have been observed.
Most species of sloth are about the same size, though there is some variance, and they all have bodies adapted for their tree-bound lifestyle. The interesting thing though is that three-toed sloths and two-toed sloths are actually pretty distant cousins. So, while prehistoric sloths lived on the ground, it wasn’t that eventually one variety of sloth became adapted to living in trees and modern sloths evolved from that one ancient tree sloth. What actually happened so totally different lines of ancient sloth adapted to live in trees and overtime those sloths became more and more like each other. This is known as convergent evolution and it’s a rare and remarkable event in evolutionary biology.
However, despite having evolved similarly, the two types of sloths to have important differences.
Three-Toed Sloths
The three-toed sloths are designated as part of the Bradypodidae family and of the genus Bradypus. They are different from the two-toed sloths not only because of the number of toes, but other physical aspects as well. Namely, the three-toed sloths have shorter hair, especially on their face, and a shorter snout, which gives them more of an appearance of having a human-like head with a nose and a mouth, which often looks like it’s smiling.
Another physical difference is that three-toed sloths have extra vertebrae in their spine. This is strange because almost all mammals only have 7 vertebrae. This difference allows them to turn their heads almost completely around, like this guy here:
Males and female sloths look different in most three-toed sloth species (the maned sloth being the exception), with the males having a colored patch on their back:
Three-toed sloths are the slower of the two varieties, and they may sometimes spend an entire day without moving. This might seem like a disadvantage, but scientists have observed that sloth predators prey on two-toed sloths more often than their three-toed cousins. Thus, that slowness actually protects the three-toed sloths. (See our article: Why Are Sloths So Slow? How Slow Are Sloths?)
Three-toed sloths’ diets are somewhat more particular eaters. They almost only eat the leaves of the cecropia tree. This probably is the reason why they are even more docile than their two-toed sloths.
Reproduction is one of the main ways in which three-toed sloths are distinct from their cousins. Three-toed sloths only mate during August and September and they generally only mate with one other sloth during that time. Two-toed sloths, as we will learn, are a bit more libertine.
Two-Toed Sloths
The two species of two-toed sloths are part of the family Megalonychidae and the genus Choloepus, a totally distinct family and genus from the three-toed sloth. The Hoffman’s two-toed sloth has a light colored throat. The Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth has a darker color fur on its throat.
The fur of two-toed sloth is different from their three-toed cousins in that the Hoffman’s and Linnaeus’s sloth have longer hair, especially around the abdomen. Also, on a near microscopic level the two-toed sloths have long grooves along their hair, which is different from the fur on the three-toed sloth that have tiny transverse sloths. This can lead to the three-toed sloths having more green algae in their fur.
Sex and reproduction are very different for the two-toed sloths. The sex ratio of the population is very different. There are 11 females born for every male. This means that in order for everyone to have a chance to reproduce the males mate with multiple females. However, females also tend to mate with multiple males. Furthermore, rather than only hooking up during a specific mating season, two-toed sloths are always down to fornicate any time of the year.
How Fast Do Sloths Reproduce
That might sound like fun, but it balances out. While the three-toed sloths have a pregnancy period of only 6 months (compared to 9 months for humans), two-toed sloths have a pregnancy that lasts an entire year!
Range of Sloth Species
Brown-throated three-toed sloth (B. variegatus): Honduras to northern Argentina;
Pale-throated three-toed sloth (B. tridactylus): northern South America;
Sloths Reproduction
Maned sloth (B. torquatus): southeastern Brazil;
Pygmy three-toed sloth (B. pygmaeus): Isla Escudo de Veraguas, in Panama
Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth (C. didactylus):the Amazon basin.
How Often Do Sloths Reproduce
Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth (C. hoffmanni): from Honduras to the northern coast of South America, and separately in the western part of the Amazon rainforest.