- Oh, I get to make a video on my favorite animal.
Yes, today's my day.
Who doesn't love sloths?
With those goofy grins on their faces,
these tropical mammals live in Central and South America
and spend their days hanging upside down.
They're known as the epitome of lazying around,
but there's so much more to them than that.
So let's get into it.
If you've ever wanted to know more about those things
that grow moss on their back, now's the time.
Here are 10 amazing facts about the sloth.
Sloths, so what are they?
There are actually six species of sloths,
and they came in two varieties, two-toed and three-toed.
Now this can be a little confusing because both types
have three claws on their hind limbs.
Technically, two-toed sloths should be really called
two-fingered sloths because the difference
is only their front limbs.
And speaking of those claws, they get pretty long
and can grow to about three to four inches,
which makes walking on the ground pretty difficult.
But evolution took care of that
because sloths spend most of their time in trees,
which actually brings us to number two.
They really like warm places.
Thousands of years ago, sloths roamed North America,
but today they can be found in South and Central America.
They like to hang out in tall trees
mostly in the rainforests, cloud forests, or mangroves.
In fact, the three-toed species has been found to spend
their entire life in the tree that they were born in.
Talk about never wanting to move out.
I see you trying to save money, lazy sloth.
Slow, slower, and slowest.
Sloths are considered the slowest-moving animals
on the planet.
They crawl only about one foot per minute.
But while they're slow climbers,
they're quite speedy in water.
Mhm, watch out, Michael Phelps.
They're naturally buoyant
and can actually do the breast stroke like humans,
which is really just another great evolutionary adaptation
because rainforests are prone to seasonal flooding.
So swimming is essential for their survival.
Swimming also helps them get to new places much faster,
which is great when they're searching for a mate.
You know, doesn't matter if they're two-toed, three-toed.
You know what I'm saying?
They're ready to go.
Which brings us to the next fact, mating.
Sloths mate and give birth in trees.
But in the wild they are solitary animals,
so first they need to find each other.
Females climb down from the tree, which takes a while,
and poop at the base of it.
That's how they leave their scents,
in case you were wondering.
They also let out a shrill, monotone mating scream
to let the males in the area know she's ready.
The males then start the slow race of getting to her.
If more than one male makes it there at the same time,
they fight each other, violently swiping their claws
at each other while upside down from tree branches.
Once the deed is done, successful gestation
takes about five to six months for the pale-throated sloth
and as much as 11.5 months
for the Hoffmann's two-toed sloth.
All sloth mommies only give birth to one baby at a time.
They eat a lot of leaves.
Living in trees, sloths obviously eat a lot of foliage,
but only the three-toed sloths are herbivores.
Two-toed sloths are omnivorous, which means that they
also eat bugs, small lizards, as well fruit and leaves.
But all the leaves that they eat are really hard to digest,
that's why sloths have multi-chambered stomachs
filled with bacteria that can break down the cellulose.
The leafy diet also doesn't provide a lot of nutrition,
which may account for their sluggish lifestyle
since they don't get a lot of energy from it.
Pooping, everyone does it.
What goes in must come out, and sloths are well-known
for the great trek that they take down from the tree.
They do it once a week just to poop.
That's right, once a week.
And no, they're never constipated.
They simply just take that long to digest the food.
It takes an average human about 12 to 48 hours
to ingest, digest, and eliminate waste from food.
But it can take up to a month for a sloth
to digest a single meal.
Mm, it was so good, I'm taking my time.
When sloths eliminate,
they can loose about a third of their body weight.
That's a lot of poop.
They have on extra thing no other mammal has.
Sloths have a specialized anatomy that allows them
to hang upside down.
It's like gravity doesn't exist for them.
Imagine a highly trained gymnast
doing a handstand for many hours.
After a while, they're gonna begin to shake and quiver
or feel out of breath.
But sloths are able to eat, mate, and give birth
all while upside down.
And all of that without the weight of their internal organs
pressing on their diaphragm and affecting their breathing.
How you ask?
Well, researchers have found that a sloth's internal organs
are actually anchored on the abdomen.
That means that they keep the weight
away from their diaphragm.
Typically, mammals only have seven cervical vertebrae.
The same as humans.
Biologists aren't sure how they got this extra feature.
Usually when this happens in the animal kingdom,
it results in stillbirth, but the slow metabolism
of the sloth may have made it less risky
to have a higher number of vertebrae.
One cool feature of this is that the three-toed sloth
can turn their heads up to an astonishing 270 degrees.
Their fungi could possibly cure cancer.
Since sloths spend so much time in trees,
their lush coat becomes covered in algae in the wild.
This is great because it offers them protection from
harpy eagles and other predators since they're camouflaged.
Scientists have found that a range of fungi grow
and thrive on their fur.
But even more amazingly, they found that these fungi
actually showed positive effects
in battling human breast cancer strains.
So scientists, please keep studying the fungus
on the backs of sloths because one day we might find
a cure for cancer from it.
Their slowness is their defense mechanism.
Now, I know we talked all about how slow sloths are,
but what I find amazing is that this slowness
is actually their defense mechanism.
Generally being fast and swift in the animal kingdom
is a good thing because for a predator
it's much easier to catch your prey.
However, sloths have gone in the opposite direction
in terms of their evolution.
Their strategy is invisibility,
laying as still as possible and moving very slowly
deep in the cover of trees so that no one can spot them.
I'd say they're careful, not slow.
Animalogic has more amazing facts
about all kinds of animals, not just sloths.
But Matt, what's Animalogic?
Well, if you loved these facts and want more,
check out my friends at Animalogic.
It's a great channel dedicated to finding out
the most interesting and unique aspects of all animals.
Hosted by scientific illustrator Danielle Dufault,
the channel highlights an animal every week.
Animalogic Wild took the crew on an adventure in Costa Rica
deep into he jungle to see these amazing sloths in the wild,
as well as many other animals
such as tapirs, jaguars, margays.
What the heck is a margay you might be asking.
Well, you have to watch this channel in order to find out.
So click the link in the description
or the elements that's on your screen right now
and go subscribe to Animalogic.