On a walk in Manzanillo, Costa Rica I spotted a sloth.

♡ Please subscribe @: https://www.youtube.com/c/worldbytoma...

#sloth #costarica #slothmotion

Follow worldbytomas on Instagram

  / worldbytomas  

Follow worldbytomas on Twitter

  / worldbytomas  

Like worldbytomas on Facebook

  / worldbytomas  

Sloths are a Neotropical group of xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside down in the trees of the tropical rainforests of South America and Central America. Sloths are considered to be most closely related to anteaters, together making up the xenarthran order Pilosa.

There are six extant sloth species in two genera – Bradypus (three–toed sloths) and Choloepus (two–toed sloths). Despite this traditional naming, all sloths have three toes on each rear limb although twotoed sloths have only two digits on each forelimb. The two groups of sloths are from different, distantly related families, and are thought to have evolved their morphology via parallel evolution from terrestrial ancestors. Besides the extant species, many species of ground sloths ranging up to the size of elephants (like Megatherium) inhabited both North and South America during the Pleistocene Epoch. However, they became extinct during the Quaternary extinction event around 12,000 years ago, along with most large bodied animals in the New World. The extinction correlates in time with the arrival of humans, but climate change has also been suggested to have contributed. Members of an endemic radiation of Caribbean sloths also formerly lived in the Greater Antilles but became extinct after humans settled the archipelago in the midHolocene, around 6,000 years ago.

Sloths are so named because of their very low metabolism and deliberate movements. Sloth, related to slow, literally means "laziness," and their common names in several other languages (e.g. German: Faultier, French: paresseux, Spanish: perezoso, Romanian: leneș, Finnish: laiskiainen) also mean "lazy" or similar. Their slowness permits their lowenergy diet of leaves and avoids detection by predatory hawks and cats that hunt by sight. Sloths are almost helpless on the ground, but are able to swim. The shaggy coat has grooved hair that is host to symbiotic green algae which camouflage the animal in the trees and provide it nutrients. The algae also nourish sloth moths, some species of which exist solely on sloths.

Sloths are solitary animals that rarely interact with one another except during breeding season, though female sloths do sometimes congregate, more so than do males.

Sloths descend about once every eight days to defecate on the ground. The reason and mechanism behind this behavior have long been debated among scientists. There are at least five hypotheses: 1) fertilize trees when feces are deposited at the base of the tree; 2) cover feces and avoid predation; 3) chemical communication between individuals; 4) pick up trace nutrients in their claws, that are then ingested; and 5) favor a mutualistic relationship with populations of fur moths. More recently, a new hypothesis has emerged, which presents evidence against the previous ones and proposes that all current sloths are descendants from species that defecated on the ground, and there simply has not been enough selective pressure to abandon this behavior, since cases of predation during defecation are actually very rare.

Baby sloths learn what to eat by licking the lips of their mother. All sloths eat the leaves of Cecropia.

Twotoed sloths are omnivorous, with a diverse diet of insects, carrion, fruits, leaves and small lizards, ranging over up to 140 hectares (350 acres). Threetoed sloths, on the other hand, are almost entirely herbivorous (plant eaters), with a limited diet of leaves from only a few trees, and no other mammal digests its food as slowly.

They have made adaptations to arboreal browsing. Leaves, their main food source, provide very little energy or nutrients, and do not digest easily, so sloths have large, slowacting, multichambered stomachs in which symbiotic bacteria break down the tough leaves. As much as twothirds of a wellfed sloth's body weight consists of the contents of its stomach, and the digestive process can take a month or more to complete.

Threetoed sloths go to the ground to urinate and defecate about once a week, digging a hole and covering it afterwards. They go to the same spot each time and are vulnerable to predation while doing so. Considering the large energy expenditure and dangers involved in the journey to the ground, this behaviour has been described as a mystery. Recent research shows that moths, which live in the sloth's fur, lay eggs in the sloth's feces.