Sloths

1.   Sloths have long gray or brown hair that blends in well with the surrounding environment, making
it difficult for predators, such as
the jaguar, to see them.

2.   Their hair is often covered with a coat of blue-green algae during
the rainy season.

3.   They eat leaves and buds.

4.   They do not have incisors and crop leaves with their hard lips.

5.   The probable maximum sloth lifespan is between 30 and 40
years. Some sloths in zoos have reached these ages.

6.   Sloths move only when necessary and then very slowly: they have about half as much muscle tissue as other animals
of similar weight.

7.   Their specialized hands and feet have long, curved claws to allow them to hang upside-down from branches without effort.

8.   In terms of their sleep, sloths are one of the most somnolent animals ever, sleeping from 15 to 18 hours each day.

9.   Females normally bear one baby every year, but sometimes sloths lack of movement actually keeps females from finding males for longer than one year.

10. Although unable to survive outside the tropical rainforests of South
and Central America, within that environment sloth’s are outstandingly successful creatures.