The sloth has adapted to live in a “low battery mode.” It has the slowest metabolism of all mammals, and being slow is actually an advantage for the sloth.
The facts about sloth article is available in text and in the video if you prefer to watch it.
10 Cool Facts about Sloths
Today we learn how being slow is a good survival tactic and what are the other cool things about this cute but super slow animal.
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10. Low battery mode
Sloths have the slowest metabolism of all mammals, making them incredibly energy efficient. Sloths live in the trees and eat mostly hard-to-digest, fiberous, and low-calorie leaves.
Eating this low-quality food source is beneficial because not much else wants to eat it, which means it is very abundant. The problem is that this food leaves the sloth living a life with very few calories to burn.
The sloth only moves up to 125 feet per day and has adapted tons of interesting strategies to survive in this unique, low-battery mode niche.
9. Giant ground sloths
Modern tree sloths evolved from the same common ancestor as giant ground sloths did. Giant ground sloths showed up around 35 million years ago, migrated to North America 8 MYA, and only recently became extinct.
Around 11,000 years ago, the last North American Giant ground sloth, or “Megatherium ” died off. This timing coincides with the end of the most recent ice age, and ancient humans likely hunted them to extinction.
Giant sloths were bigger than buffaloes. They look furocious with their huge sharp claws, but these claws were only used for defensive purposes. They ate fruit, not meat. Their digestive tract was so wide that they were able to eat avacodo seeds whole, and they spread them all around the world.
Today, only 6 species of sloth remain, and they are located in Central and South America. At only 20 lbs (9.1 kg), modern sloths could survive the rise of mankind because of their small size and ability to hide in trees.
8. An upside down world
Modern sloths Spend 90% of their life upside down and motionless. Their claws are spring-loaded to be closed. Muscles pull the hands and feet open to grab, and when relaxed, tendons naturally hold them closed around a branch.
A sloth doesn’t have to use any energy to hang upside down and will keep hanging there even if it dies. The sloth can hang it’s entire body weight on just 1 limb.
Most mammals are uncomfortable being upside down because their organs smush their lungs and change their blood pressure, but sloths have evolved to have their organs locked into place against the ribcage. Sloths have the most ribs of all mammals, by the way, with 23 pairs. Humans only have only 12 pairs.
7. A huge gut
The reason sloths have so many ribs is because they have an oversized digestive system. Their 3 chambered stomach is always stuffed with leaves. These low-calorie leaves can take an entire month to digest. The sloth must ensure it is always full to absorb as many calories as possible.
Sloths can break down cellulose using their 3 chambered stomach. The first 2 chambers contain specialized bacteria that help decompose leaves to the point where the sloth can absorb the left-over nutrients.
This symbotic digestion is a very slow method of energy intake. At any given time, about 33% of a sloth’s body weight is just the food waiting to be digested in the gut.
It is important to mention that 2-toed sloths can eat some insects, lizards, and fruits, so they are slightly faster than their vegetarian, 3-toed, leaf-only-eating cousins in almost all regards.
6. Well potty-trained
Sloths only go to the toilet about 1 time per week, and they can store another 33% of their body weight as urine or feces for this entire week. That is comparable to a human holding 6 gallons of urine in their bladder.
When the sloth relieves itself, it climbs down to the ground, digs a hole, and fills it up. The sloth is very vulnerable on the ground, and researchers believe they use the toilet at the base of their tree to communicate territory and for mating purposes.
On the ground, the sloth is close to a sitting duck, moving at only 5 feet per minute. They will fight back if attacked using their sharp claws and by biting, but they are generally at a huge disadvantage to any land predator.
Bonus fact: Sloths are blind (most of the time)
Sloths have rod monochromacy. This is a rare condition that affects 1 in 30,000 humans and 100% of sloths. Sloths have only rods and no cones and therefore see the world in only shades of grey. Not only that, but they can only see at night. They are blind during the day. Why have s
oths evolved this trait? I do not know, but perhaps having less sensory information helps the sloth save brain energy. Brains burn many calories, and the sloth does not have a lot of calories to spare.
Sloths do, however, have good tactile senses and spacial memory, so they can get around by feeling their way through the environment.
The sloth, quite simply, may not need to see. They can find leaves and mates by smell and touch alone.
Sloths float
Sloths are strong swimmers, and they float because of their gas-filled guts. Sloths also float because they have low muscle density. Muscles burn calories just idling, so it makes sense to have as few muscles as possible if you are permanently in low battery mode.
Sloths can swim 3 times faster than they can walk, and they can hold their breath for 40 minutes because of their slow metabolism and cellular respiration. Sloths sometimes swim to cross rivers. This swimming ability is probably a risidual trait.
8 MYA, One of the sloth’s ancient ancestors, Thalassocnus, was a semi-aquatic animal that ate seaweed.
4. Temperature fluctuations
Rare among mammals, the sloth does not maintain a constant body temperature. The body temperature can fluctuate from 74-92 F before it becomes critical and self-regulating. Sloths do not have the spare energy to raise their temperatures by shivering.
Cold-blooded animals allow the environment to control their temperatures, and sloths are not cold-blooded. They are what we call “Heterothermic,” making them halfway between cold and warm-blooded. They allow the environment to control their temperatures to a small extent.
These energy savings comes at a deadly cost sometimes. The bacteria needed to digest cellulose in their guts are sensitive to temperature, and they may die if temperatures change too fast or drop too low. This would lead to the sloth starving to death, unable to eat without the help of it’s symbiotic bacteria.
Good at falling
Sloths are sturdy animals and regularly fall out of trees. They can repeatedly survive falls of up to 100 feet. Sloths sometimes fall when their branch breaks or when reaching too far for leaves. When male sloths fight over a female in the tree tops, the goal is to throw the other male out of the tree.
Sloths also sometimes intentionally fall out of a tree at a great height to escape a predator that is less durable. Leave me a comment. What is the furthest you have ever fallen?
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Biological Camoflauge
Sloths wear an entire ecosystem in their fur. They do not groom themselves and allow algae, fungi, and bacteria to thrive on them. SOme sloths even carry hundreds of beetles and moths with them.
This allows them to not only look like their environment, but to smell like it too. Sloths do not have an odor. They just smell like the jungle. Earthy and green!
This camoflauge allows sloths to blend in like a ghillea suit. you maybe have seen snipers wearing these in the movies. Things that might eat a sloth include big cats like the jaguar, birds of prey like eagles, or tree snakes.
Sloths hope not to be spotted because they can not outrun any of these predators. They can barely outrun a snail.
This camoflauge combined with their slow movement speed, makes them very hard to detect. Most predators spot prey by looking for movement. An eagle can see a mouse running on the forest floor but won’t see a sloth’s slow movements. Their slow movement speed is actually an advantage.
1. Life span and conservation
The livespan of the sloth is unknown, as there is no good way to calculate their age in nature. The longest a sloth has lived in captivity is 50 years in a german zoo, but this is likely on the very low end of their true lifespan. Sloths do very poorly in captivity.
Sure, they look like they are always smiling, but that is just the color of the fur around their mouths, not an expression of emotion.
With mammals, metabolism and heart rate are very closely related to lifespan. We do know the sloth has the slowest metabolism of all mammals, so I wonder if it can live longer than the Bowhead Whale, which has a 200-year life expectancy.
Only 1 of the 6 sloth species is listed as critically endangered. The pygmy 3-toed sloth is on the verge of extinction for 2 reasons. First, it only lives on 1 small island off the coast of Panama, called “Escudo de Veraguas.”
And 2, on this small island, there is a combination of poaching and deforestation occurring at the same time. The other 5 sloth species are doing just fine surviving in their unique arboreal niche.
I hope you enjoyed this video and article on 10 sloth facts. Next, on Animal Science TV, we featured the Mantis Shrimp. They have the fastest punch in the world!
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