... The Three-toed Sloth ...
by Infocostarica Staff

The three-toed sloth its legendary for its slow movement and for the untrue supposition that it feeds exclusively on the leaves of Cecropia trees. This medium-sized mammal is perhaps the most important vertebrate primary consumer in the canopy of the moist Neotropical forests. There are fewer than six species of Bradypus distributed in lowland moist from Honduras to northern Argentina and Paraguay.

The myth of relationship between three-toed sloths and Cecropia and very few other tree species are exceptions, and most casual sightings of three-toed sloths are and large leaves that grow near the ends of the branches; thus a sloth in a Cecropia tree is relatively easy to see. Perhaps the best way to find a sloth is to look into each Cecropia tree that you pass. However sloths in the study of Barro Colorado Island used at least 96 other species of trees and in moist of those species they were almost invisible even after they have been precisely radio located. Some of the sloths were never found in Cecropia trees, and others used them only seasonally.

Three-toed sloths are arboreal mammals that live, feed, and reproduce many meters above the forest floor near the upper levels of the forest canopy. They feed almost entirely on leaves using a large rumiant-like stomach and long intestinal tract to aid in digesting this energy-rich but relatively indigestible foodstuff.

Early reports says that sloths spend essentially their entirely lifetime in a single tree are not true, and a three-toed sloth moves from tree to tree on average about every 1.5 days by passing between tree crowns, often using pathways formed by lianas that interlace the crowns. To descend to the ground each time they changed from tree to tree would be very wasteful of the sloth’s energy.

Three-toed sloth live at high densities in forests of Panama. To conserve energy gained from the relatively energy-poor diet, three-toed sloth have a heavy fur that provides insulation. While resting they use body postures that end to conserve heat. In part the slow rate of digestion and food passage is related to the fact that their body temperature drops almost to ambient temperature each night and is raised to a more normal mammalian temperature only when the animal bask in sunlight during the day.

A mayor predator on the three-toed sloth, the harpy eagle takes advantage of the circumstance that sloths go into sunlight in the tops of the trees to thermoregulate and snatches them from the branches while in flight.

Both males and females reach sexual maturity at about 3 years of age. Adult males are characterized by a patch of shorter hair on their backs that is colored pale to bright yellow, with a dorsoventral black stripe through the center. Adult females lack such a marking. It is essentially impossible to distinguish the sexes of young and juvenile sloths externally because there are no external genitalia.