What animal is a sloth?

Sloth is a general term for sloth suborder under Mammalia, with 6 species belonging to 2 families and 2 genera. It is named for its slow movement and often hanging its claws upside down on branches for several hours. It is the only wild animal with plants on its body. Its fur is gray brown and green due to algae attached to its fur. Most species reproduce in spring. The gestation period varies with species. It is 4~6 months or 9 months old. Each litter has a young. The life span varies. The life span of some species is up to 11 years.

Sloths have legs but cannot walk. They rely on their forelimbs to drag their bodies forward. The hair is fluffy and thick, the head is short and round, the ears are small and hidden in the hair, the tail is short, the forelimbs are 3 fingers, the hind limbs are 3 digits, all have sharp claws that can flex, the forelimbs are longer than the hind limbs, the upper jaw has 5 pairs of teeth, the lower jaw has 4 pairs, a total of 18, the stomach is divided into chambers, and the cervical vertebra has 9 segments, which is the most in mammals. Weight 4~7 kg, body hair long and thick, hair coat for algae to provide living conditions.

Sloths are strict arboresters and simple herbivores, mainly eating leaves, sprouts and fruits. For sloths, the best food is low-calorie leaves. It takes several hours to digest a little. When they are full, they hang upside down on branches to sleep late. It can be said that trees are their home. They rarely get down to the ground. They rely on holding branches and crawling vertically, or hanging upside down. They move forward alternately on their limbs. They can hang upside down for a long time. Even sleeping is this posture.

Sloths are distributed in Central America and South America, including Venezuela, Guyana, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, Guyane française and other places. There are 6 species belonging to 2 families and 2 genera, all of which are listed in the Red List of Threatened Species of IUCN in 2012 ver3.1-critically endangered (CR).

Sloth is a lazy mammal, lazy to do anything, even lazy to eat, lazy to play, even when chased, captured as if nothing happened, crawling slowly, facing danger moment its escape speed is more than 0.2 meters/second, people often slow movement compared to turtle crawling, in fact sloth than turtle crawling slower.