Sloths have been around on earth for 64 million years. The incredible slowness allows them to save energy and hide from predators.
--> They are the slowest mammal on the planet. But they are not lazy, their slowness is a survival skill. Sloths diet is mainly based on leaves, which grant a low intake of energy. They balance such low-calorie intake with reduced energy waste.
--> Slow movements and lowest metabolic rates allow them to conserve energy. A sloth may take 30-50 days to digest one leaf.
Their metabolism is so slow that the tree-dwelling herbivores climb down to the ground to defecate once every 7 to 10 days.
--> This is a survival adaptation, as their slowness on the ground makes them vulnerable to cars, humans, and other animals.
--> Sloths grow algae on their furs, thus creating shades of green. This camouflage mechanism makes them almost invisible in trees. Sloths generally travel no more than 125 ft in a single day. They can crawl only 1 ft per minute on the ground.
--> They sleep for 8-10 hours a day and even when awake will remain motionless.
--> Extra bones in their neck allow sloths to rotate their heads 270. This enables them to obtain an almost 360 view of their surroundings. Sloths spend 90% of their lives hanging upside down from tree branches.
--> They eat, sleep, mate and give birth upside-down in the trees. Sloths hold onto tree branches with strong, curved claws. Some sloths only eat the leaves from the trees where they were born.
--> Sloths are strong, even though they contain only 25% muscle in their bodies. Their muscles are composed of slow-twitch fibres that provide loads of endurance while not using a lot of energy.
--> Sloths cannot shiver to stay warm like other mammals. So they bask in sunlight to raise their body temperatures.
Although slow on land, sloths are extremely great swimmers. They move three times faster in water than on land.
--> Sloths can able to slow their heart rate up to 1/3rd of their normal pace. Underwater they can hold their breath for 40 minutes.
--> The prehistoric sloth Megatherium lived almost 65 million years ago. It was about 7m tall and weighed between 4 to 7 tones. They could grow as large as an Asian elephant.
--> These giants sloths became extinct around 10,000 years ago.
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