The Sloth. Classified in the animal kingdom of Anaimalia; phylum, Chdodata (vertebrate); in the class, mammalian, and family Bradyopidae. It lives in the canopy layer of the Amazon rainforest, feeding on fruits, leaves, buds, and it's favorite the leaves of the cecropia tree.
There are five species of sloth, the Hoffman's two-toed sloth, Lianne's two-toed sloth, the Brown-throated three-towed sloth, the pale-throated three-toed sloth, and the Maned sloth (which is three-toed). Despite their characterizing names, all sloths have three toes but some only have two fingers, and those are the ones classified as, the two-toed sloth.
This little creature is so creative, it can fall asleep, upside down (I wonder though, if it's just passing out due to the flow of blood to it's brain, or does that only happen with humans?).
Now, this little animal is so kind and considerate of other animals, that it will only go to the bathroom about once a week, and climbs all the way to the ground to do so, to escape the experience of having an angry jaguar after it, I could assume. And, this isn't just a trip to the bathroom like anyone else would take, it takes about an hour for them to get to the ground.
Of course, once they've reached the ground, they don't let go of the tree. No, they stay attatched, because it is hard for a sloth to walk on the ground, due to the shape of it's fingers and toes (So I would suppose livining the desert where there are no trees means I couldn't have one for a pet, or at least, it wouldn't be a good idea).
The sloth has a reputation of being slow and sluggish, and I suppose that at a top speed of 13 feet an hour, it is a well deserved reputation.
Of course, their speed is one of their defenses, coupled with the fact that they allow alge to grow on their fur, providing camoflage (their number one form of defense), they can evade most of their predators, which include the Jaguar and the Hary Eagle. While their defenses work fairly well, they do on occasion get attacked. When attacked, a sloth will always fight back. It's main attacks are scratching and nipping at their predator. (A sloth's life expectancy is 12 years in the wild, but can be much higher in captivity.)
When the sloth reproduces it only has one offsring, and the mother raises it by herself. (Which isn't too surprising as sloths are mostly solitary animals.) A sloth baby is only the size of a thumb when it's born, and weighs 10 - 14 oz. I've also heard that a baby sloth is so "graceful" that it will, on occasion, miss grabing a branch, and grab it's own arm instead, sending it falling to the ground.
Sloths, though very slow, are wonderful swimmers (And I'm going to see if I can't find a link to a video or a picture of a sloth swimming for all of you).
The sloth has also been around for a very long time (anyone remember the movie ice age? There was a sloth there), and fossiles have been found dating back to the Pleistocene Era.
And, to wrap it all up, sloths are nocturnal, moving about mostly during the night. (A lot like me when I'm on summer or spring vacation.) While I'm not sure why that wraps it up, other than that's the end of my information, I hope you enjoyed the sloth information, and learned a thing or two as well.
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