Two-toed Sloth
(Choloepus didactylus)
A sloth’s body consists of a short neck with four long limbs of equal length, ending in two long curved claws. Two-toed sloths have two toes with claws on the front feet and three toes on the back feet, used to hang upside down from branches. These claws are handy for hanging onto tree branches but make walking on the ground awkward. The head is short and flat, with a snub nose, rudimentary ears, and large eyes. Each strand of sloth fur has grooves that collect algae, giving sloths a greenish tint during the wet season. This greenish tint camouflages them in the forest canopy.
Two-toed sloths range throughout Central America and northern South America, including portions of Brazil and Peru. Sloths are strictly arboreal, staying high in the canopy of the tropical rain forests. Two-toed sloths rarely descend to the forest floor. To move to a new area of trees, sloths often wait for the forest to flood and then swim to their next home.
The reason they move so slowly has a lot to do with what they eat: a variety of leaves, stems, buds, and some fruit. This kind of diet requires a special digestive system. Sloths have a large, four-chambered stomach. They have a low metabolic rate and feces and urine are only passed once a week at habitual sites at the base of trees. Though mostly herbivorous, they may occasionally snack on a larval insect or other passive, protein-packed snack.
Two-toed sloths are often found alone in the wild. When it comes time for a female to breed, she will let out a “scream” at nighttime and any males nearby will work their way towards her. If more than one male reaches her at the same time, they slowly fight each other while hanging by their rear legs. After a gestation period of six months, the female will give birth to a single offspring. The offspring will then hold onto mom until it is strong enough to move around on its own, typically after five weeks.
Sloths are primarily nocturnal, sleeping for 15 hours during the day and waking up at night to eat. Sloths move slowly and deliberately.
Information collected from https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/two-toed-sloth and https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/two-toed-sloth