How Sloths Breed

• How Many Sloth Breeds Are There
• How Sloths Reproduce
• Characteristics Of Sloths
• How Sloths Breed
• How To Breed Sloths

Sloths are the quintessential couch potatoes of the rainforest, and these sluggish tree-dwellers also serve as a hotel for moths and algae. Three-toed sloths descend from the trees once a week to. The pale- and brown-throated three-toed sloths mate seasonally, while the maned three-toed sloth breeds at any time of the year. The reproduction of pygmy three-toed sloths is unknown. Litters are of one newborn only, after six months' gestation for three-toed, and 12 months' for two-toed.

The word 'sloth' means 'inclined to laziness and inaction', and the amazingly placid and extremely slow moving sloth would certainly appear to live up to its name.

The sloth is almost entirely arboreal, spending over 95 percent of its existence high up in the trees of Central and South America.

With the help of extremely specialized claws, sloths eat, sleep, breed and give birth all while dangling from the tallest branches of cecropia trees. Sloths come in two and three toed varieties and are related to anteaters, who have similarly formed long arching toenails.

Sloths exist on a diet almost entirely of leaves, which is such an inferior source of nutrition and energy that it shapes their whole lifestyle. They end up spending almost every waking moment quietly munching on leaves with little time for grooming or any other activities.

The lack of grooming leads the sloths dense coat to actually grow algae during the rainy season, giving them a greenish tinge.

Within the sloths belly is a sea of micro bacteria that help to breakdown and eventually digest what they eat. The process takes so long that a leaf consumed in August might not be eliminated until October.

With so much effort exerted to extract a minimum of nutrients, the sloths metabolism is amazingly slow- the slowest in the entire animal kingdom. - Sloth Facts

the sloths very special equipment

All of the sloth species have numerous amazing adaptions, not only for an arboreal life high in the trees, but also for a life lived in an inverted position.

Sloths do not build nests, instead they find a leafy area and simply fall asleep hanging completely upside down with all four limbs grasping a branch.

Three toed sloths rear legs, feet and claws are shorter than the front and both two-toed and three-toed sloths have three toes on the rear legs.

There is a suggestion that all sloths are three-toed because the front 'toes' are actually 'fingers'.

The claws on the front feet are about 4 inches long, and can be used as a weapon when the sloth is cornered. The claws on all four limbs curve in toward the wrist creating four large, natural hooks. Muscle power is not required for the sloth to grip branches, in fact sloths have about 30% less muscle mass than other mammals of equal size.

It is the construction of the claws and limbs, and a natural retraction of the ligaments that creates the 'gripping reflex' of the sloth. A sloth spends approximately 85% of its life hanging completely upside down, mainly because it requires no effort.

The entire sloth is designed for a life of inversion. All of its internal organs, including the heart, liver, spleen and stomach, are rearranged inside its body cavity so nothing gets crushed or obstructed.

Even the fur on the sloths torso and limbs grows in the opposite direction than it would in other animals with the follicles pointing up the arms and away from the belly so the hairs guide rain water and debris to the ground.

As an example of the effortlessness with which sloths dangle from the highest limbs, it is not uncommon for a sloth to pass away and remain securely hooked to its final branch. - Sloth Facts

sloth reproduction

So we know that the sloth is incredibly slow. It takes about a month to digest a leaf, about a minute to move 15 feet and about 6 hours to make it to the bathroom and back.

But there is one thing that sloths do with amazing speed, and that one thing is sex.

Sloth females come into heat about once a year and they let the whole neighborhood know it. Normally demure, a lady sloth in heat screams continually until a male finds her or her season passes.

She generally does not leave her own trees and just waits for a suitor to arrive. Then, once a gentleman makes his way up to her, it is basically first come first served without any posturing or foreplay.

In fact, the whole experience from first contact to completion of deed may only be a matter of seconds. In some species the male may stay for a day or two and there may be several matings, but in other species the male departs right after a single 6 second act of intercourse.

The mother sloth gives birth to one pup after about 4 months of pregnancy. The baby is born fully furred, eyes open, and generously clawed. It is basically a miniature adult without the fauna developed in its fur yet, of course.

The pup clings to its mothers belly most of the first few months of life and begins to munch on leaves at about 2 months old.

A baby sloth usually leaves its mother after a year or so, sometimes just moving a tree or two away, but generally has no contact with her once independent. - Sloth Facts

sloth evolution

Surprisingly, three-toed and two-toed sloths are actually not closely related.

The three-toed and the two-toed sloths are from two different families of animals, with their last known common ancestor having existed over 30 million years ago. That creature, most probably, lived on the ground.

So, although they appear to be very similar, they are better described as animals that evolved in the exact same way due to habitat, rather than being closely related. This is called convergent evolution and is a result of creatures changing in the same ways due to exposure to the same circumstances, and arriving at a very similar result that appears to be more closely related than it actually is.

In fact, the two-toed sloths actual closest relative is the now-extinct ground sloth. The ground sloths, including the gigantic megatherium or giant ground sloth existed throughout the southern United States up till about 10,000 years ago and was larger than an elephant.

These creatures probably lived in groups, as elephants do, and walked on all fours. They had curved claws like the modern sloths and walked on the sides of their feet like anteaters do, because the claws were over a foot long! - Sloth Facts

what's the difference between three-toed and two-toed sloths?

The three-toed sloth is kind of adorable, and has become a bit of an Internet darling. Most of the photos used in wallpapers and t-shirts are of either the brown-throated or pale-throated three-toed sloth.

These two species also have the characteristic dark eye patches that trail down to the neck. Three-toed sloths have fur on their faces, tiny, stumpy tails, three toes on both the front and rear feet, rear legs much shorter than front, and smaller noses than two-toed sloths.

The three-toed sloths also have extra neck vertebrae which allow them to swivel their heads 270 degrees around. Because of major skeletal differences like this, two-toed sloths are in a separate zoological family from three-toed.

Two=toed sloths are larger and faster and eat a more varied diet of fruits and insects along with leaves. This gives them a bit more energy than their smaller relatives, and they move about more freely in a larger range. Two-toeds have bare flesh on their faces, very large, wet noses, no visible tail (there is a tail vertebrae inside the body) and, of course, two toes on the front feet, three on the rear.

Two-toed sloth species are also completely nocturnal, sleeping motionless and almost invisible in the treetops all day long and not moving until after dark. There has been very little field research done on them for this reason, and so, as mysterious an animal as the three-toed sloth is, the two-toed sloth is an even deeper mystery.

Three-toed sloths spend some time active during early morning or dusk so can be observed more easily. The three-toed in particular, has a tremendously mat-like body of thick fur, that it never grooms.

The fur becomes home to both vegetation and insects. Entire colonies of moths may live in their fur, and algae and lichen grow abundantly - particularly in rainy season- providing exceptional camouflage.

Sloths have long, thick, sticky tongues covered in a carpet of tiny, rear-ward pointing spikes that they can pull leaves in with. They have a four-chambered stomach like a cow, to process all the vegetation, but short intestines that don't extract as much energy.

Their bodies do not regulate temperature effectively and they must move to sunny spots to warm up. In cold rainy weather their temperature drops and they become inactive. Cold spells can be dangerous for sloth populations because they must move about to eat, but can't get warm enough to move. - Sloth Facts

sloth lifestyle - pay it forward

Sloths live in very dense rain forest where the tops of mangrove, cecropia and trumpet trees form the famous 'canopy'- a tangle of branches that can allow a creature like the sloth, or other small arboreal animals like monkeys and lizards to travel sometimes for miles across the rain forest, treetop to treetop, without ever touching the ground.

Although their entire range may expand for several trees, there are many sloths, particularly the smaller, less active three-toed species that spend their entire lives in the limbs of just one single large tree.

Once every five to seven days the sloth will climb down to the ground and relieve itself at the base of the tree, burying its feces in basically the same area every time.

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The buried stool breaks down quickly and provides excellent fertilizer for the parent tree.

Although it is not known why they risk leaving the tree to defecate and don't simply relieve themselves from a branch, their habit of burying their stool at the roots of the tree they live in is an interesting example of the circle of life. - Sloth Facts.

a few more sloth facts

• The sloth has the slowest metabolism of any mammal on Earth.
• Sloths take about 25 days to digest one leaf.
• The ancestors of todays sloth were as big as African elephants
• Both two-toed and three-toed sloths have three toes on their hind limbs.
• The sloth takes a potty break only once a week
• Sloths sleep hanging completely upside-down
• The sloths fur is home to algae, lichen and even moths.
• The sloth turns green in the rainy season due to algae growing on its fur. - Sloth Facts

Scientific Classification:

• Phylum
• Class
• Order
• Suborder
• Family
• Genus
• Family
• Genus

How Many Sloth Breeds Are There

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Sloths

Hilights

• Scientific Name: Bradypus variegatus and Choleopus hoffmanni
• Status in the Wild: Common
• Habitat:Cloud Forests, Rainforests
• Diet: Omnivore

Costa Rica is home to two species of sloth, the brown-throated three-toed sloth and Hoffmann's two-toed sloth. Black eye patches and 'smiling' mouths distinguish Costa Rica's docile three-toed sloths, while the larger two-toed variety have white-ringed faces, brown snouts and shaggy coats. Sloths are especially unique in that they spend nearly their entire lives hanging upside down in a tree; they sleep, eat, mate and even give birth upside down!

Not surprisingly, both species are highly adapted to living in the treetops; their long claws provide a tenacious grip to the slightest of branches. Sloths sleep an average of fourteen to eighteen hours per day, so it is most common to see them as furry balls tucked into the crooks of tree branches. Their long guard hairs encourage algae growth, which helps them camouflage in the forest canopy. The average lifespan of a wild sloth is 10-16 years, though they can live into their mid-thirties in captivity.

The genus names of both sloth species refer to the animals' slow locomotion: in the case of the three-toed sloth, Bradypus means 'slowness of foot,' while two-toed sloths are Choleopus, or 'lameness of foot.' Likewise, their common names in Spanish (perezoso) and English refer to their sluggish nature. However, sloths are not so much lazy as they are at the mercy of their incredibly slow digestive tracts. While most herbivores process food in mere hours, it can take more than four weeks for a sloth to digest one leaf. Therefore, energy is at a premium, and sloths exercise conservation of movement. Despite their lethargic movement on land, sloths are surprisingly agile swimmers, and have been observed using a modified overhand stroke.

Three-toed sloths are active both day and night, while the Hoffman's sloth is mostly nocturnal. Both species live in the forest canopy, usually in dense tree crowns, where they can be difficult to spot due to their greenish-gray fur and relative stillness. In Costa Rica, sloths often feed on the leaves of cecropia trees, which are less dense and therefore a favorite place for nature hikers to sloth-watch. The two-toed sloth is primarily herbivorous, but occasionally supplements its diet with lizards, bird eggs and insects.

How Sloths Reproduce

Both species have the peculiar habit of relieving themselves on the forest floor just once a week. They do not urinate or defecate in between these sessions, and can therefore expel as much as 1/3 of their entire body weight during this time. Scientists have not yet discovered the reason for this behavior. However, it is known that once a sloth relieves itself at the base of a tree, it will not return, choosing instead another tree in the area.

Habitat:

Brown-throated sloths are found from Honduras south through northern Argentina. These three-toed sloths inhabit primary and secondary forest between sea level and 7,900 feet, although they sometimes live in large parks. The range of Hoffman's sloths stretches from Honduras down to Bolivia. They are found between sea level and 11,000 feet, and stick to primary and secondary forests.

In Costa Rica, both types are found throughout the country, except at very high elevations. In wet, lowland forests, three-toed sloths are more common than Hoffman's two-toed, often outnumbering the latter 4 to 1. Both can be spotted in the forests of Tortuguero, Puerto Viejo, Manuel Antonio, and the Osa Peninsula, as well as throughout much of the Central Valley. The Sloth Rescue Center in Cahuita is currently the only sloth sanctuary in the world, and is an excellent choice for personal encounters with these unique mammals.

Reproduction:

Brown-throated three-toed sloths have a gestational period of six months, after which females give birth to just one baby. When her offspring reaches two weeks in age, a mother three-toed sloth begins feeding it small leaf fragments from her lips.

Characteristics Of Sloths

Three-toed young spend the first four months of life attached to their mothers, and they will feed on whatever she does. When a juvenile reaches approximately six months in age, the mother will abandon it and leave for another area within her range. At this time, the youth begins to fend for itself, but will retain its mother's food preferences.

Hoffman's two-toed sloths have almost twice the gestational period of their three-toed cousins – 11.5 months. Females give birth to a single baby that nurses for the first month. Two-toed babies attach to their mothers for the first five months of life, after which time they may follow their mothers for up to two years.

Females reach sexual maturity at around two years of age, whereas males mature one to two years later. Scientists have observed that females outnumber males in the wild, and propose that this gender imbalance may account for the long gestational period. This may also help increase reproduction, as sloths do not mate often, and few males are necessary to perpetuate the species.

Status in the Wild:

Two and three-toed sloths are some of Costa Rica's most common mammals, and neither species is threatened. Some experts suggest that as the sloths' native habitat has been cut down, the animals have actually flourished due to elimination and/or relocation of large predators such as jaguars, ocelots, snakes and harpy eagles.

How Sloths Breed

Sloths in Pictures

How To Breed Sloths

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• sloth with baby sloth puerto viejo limon - Costa Rica'>
• baby two toed sloth rescue center - Costa Rica'>