Sloths

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Information on Sloths

Sloths are covered in a thick brown, slightly-greenish coat of fur and are around 61 cenimeters long. They are considered tropical mammals that live in Central and South America. They use their claws to hang on branches and they stay in trees for 20 hours a day. Their claws are four inches long and make walking on the ground tough. They call the trees their homes. There are two different catagories of sloths, the tow-toed sloth and the three-toed sloth. The two-toed sloth is slightly larger than the three-toed sloth. Although their differences, they have many similarities including size and weight. Thousands of years ago sloths were much larger. According to the San Diego Zoo, they reached the size of elephants. They also lived in North America until 10,000 years ago when they became extinct.

Habits, Habitat, and Diet

Sloths go to sleep for around 15-20 hours a day. Other things they do in their free time is mate. They mate in trees and give birth in trees. The way the mating works is when a female sloth yells a mating scream, it lets the males in the area know she is ready to mate. If two male sloths want to both mate the same female sloth, they fight. Once one of the males win they mate, and it takes around 11.5 moths for a female sloth to produce a baby sloth. After a baby is born they stay with their mother for several weeks clinging on to their bellys. They at least stay with their mother for 4 years and sometimes more than that. Besides eating insects, sloths also eat many leaves. It can take longer than a month for sloths to injest their food becasue of their four part stomach that slowly digests.

Facts

• Sloths are the average sized mammal
• Sloths are related to anteaters and armadillos
• Sloths have three toes
• If a sloth has 2 toes it it consists of 2 fingers
• They are tree-dwelling animals and are found in the jungles of Central and South America
• A sloths body is normally 50-60 cm long
• the sloths diet is mostly tree buds, new shoots, fruit and leaves, and the Cecropia tree
• They also sometimes eat insects, small reptiles, and birds
• Sloths stomachs have four parts that digest very slowly because of the tough leaves they eat
• In a minute, sloths can move 2 meters (6.5 ft)
• Sloths can reach its toungue 10 to 12 inches out of their mouths
• Sloths have long sharp claws that help them climb trees and defend themselves from predators
• their main predators are jaguars, the harp eagle, and snakes
• they only leave the trees to use the bathroom every week or so
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