International Sloth Day
October 20, 2017It’s International Sloth Day and to celebrate we are sharing our favorite sloth-tastic facts.
Did you know …
- Life upside down! Sloths spend their entire lives hanging upside down in trees: eating, sleeping and even giving birth in an upside down position. Because their body is designed to hang upside down, they are physically incapable of truly walking; they basically crawl when on the ground, usually on the way from one tree to another. They can, however, swim extremely well. Another adaptation to life upside down is that their hair has a natural part on their belly (as opposed to their back) that allows water, in frequent rainstorms, to run off.
- Life goes in slow motion for this resident of Central and South America’s rainforests. Believe it or not… It can take up to a month for sloths to digest their food and they go to the bathroom only once a week.
- Sloths have an extremely slow metabolism and have the lowest variable body temperature of any mammal. Unlike most mammals, their body temperature and metabolism will fluctuate throughout the day according to environmental temperatures – ranging from 75.2 to 91.4 degrees F (24–33 degrees C).
- The sloth has a very unusual symbiotic relationship with algae. It has specialized hair that encourages algae growth, which aids in camouflaging the animal. It is also believed that the sloth will eat some of the algae and, interestingly, it will absorb some of the nutrients from the algae through its skin.
Sloths need your help , so get moving! Support sustainable rainforest products and protect wild places in your own backyard and around the world.