Sloths are very cute animals; they move at a very slow pace and they can appear quite funny with their unhurried movements. The outer hairs of sloth fur grow in a direction opposite from that of other mammals. In most mammals, hairs grow toward the extremities, but because sloths spend so much time with their limbs above their bodies, their hairs grow away from the extremities to provide protection from the elements while they hang upside down. In other words, their fur grows from their stomach and curls around to their back.
There Are Two Different Types Of Sloths, Two-Toed And Three-Toed Sloths:
Species Of Three-toed sloths:
- Pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus)
- Maned sloth (Bradypus torquatus)
- Pale-throated sloth (Bradypus tridactylus)
- Brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus)
Species Of Two-toed sloths:
- Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus)
- Hoffman’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni)
The Three-Toed Sloths
- Sloths are found in rainforests in Central and South America. Three-toed sloths are about two feet in length and have round heads, short tails, and small ears. They have long, thick, shaggy fur with grooves in it. They have grayish-brown or yellowish-brown fur, but algae gets in the grooves in their fur and makes it look green.
- Three-toed sloths have long arms and legs; their arms are longer than their legs. They have three toes on their front paws and five toes on their rear paws. They have three long, curved claws on each paw.
- They live in trees. They hang upside down and move very, very slowly. They are nocturnal and spend most of their time sleeping.
The Two-Toed Sloths
- The name “two-toed sloth” erroneously describes the number of toes. They have two fingers in their hands (in the thoracic limbs) and three toes in their feet (in the pelvic limbs).
- They are larger than the three-toed sloths, having a body length of 58 to 70 centimetres (23 to 28 in), and weighing 4 to 8 kilograms (8.8 to 17.6 lb).
- Other distinguishing features include a more prominent snout, longer fur, and the absence of a tail.
The Pale-Throated Sloth
The species of sloth found in Guyana is the pale-throated sloth. The pale-throated sloth is similar in appearance to, and often confused with, the brown-throated sloth, which has a much wider distribution. Pale-throated sloths are solitary, herbivorous animals that spend almost their entire lives in trees. There known predators include jaguars, margays, harpy eagles, and anacondas. They have been reported to spend over eighteen hours each day asleep, and move through the tree canopy only very slowly. They periodically descend from the trees to defecate, depositing a pile of small pellets in a hole dug into the ground. Their call is a bird-like whistle described as an “ai-ai” sound.
Did You Know?
The pale-throated sloth can hang so securely with its hook-like claws that it even falls asleep in this position. It may even stay suspended in the trees for some time after it dies.
Sloth moths – In addition to the sloth’s mutualism with green algae, they are also commensal with sloth moths, and with certain species of beetle. These insects live in the sloth’s fur, and lay their eggs in its dung, on which their larvae feed.
Reproduction Of The Pale-Throated Sloth
The mating between the sloths takes place in the trees and it is usually done face to face or with the male on the back of the female. Afterward, the females gives birth to a single infant after a gestation period of about six months.
Young sloths – When the young are born, they are already fully furred and their eyes are opened. Usually, the young animal clings to the mother’s underside for the first month; at three weeks they begin to take solid food and sometime after the first month, they are fully weaned. Initially, the young have soft greyish-brown fur, which darkens and becomes rougher as they age. They reach sexual maturity at around three years.
Tip: Despite the sloth’s arboreal lifestyle, they are effective swimmers.
Habitat Of The Pale-Throated Sloth
The pale-throated sloth is found only in the tropical forests of northern South America, including Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, western Venezuela and Colombia, and Brazil north of the Amazon River.
Diet Of The Pale-Throated Sloth
They are herbivorous; they feed exclusively on twigs, fruits, buds, and leaves of trees of the genus Cecropia.
Scientific Classification Of The Pale-Throated Sloth
Pale-Throated Sloth – Bradypus tridactylus [Scientific name]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Superorder: Xenarthra
- Order: Pilosa
- Suborder: Folivora
- Family: Bradypodidae
- Genus: Bradypus
- Species: B. tridactylus
Features Of The Pale-Throated Sloth
- External features – The pale-throated sloths have a rounded head with a blunt nose and small external ears. Despite its apparently small ears, the pale-throated sloth has excellent hearing; it has also been reported to have a good sense of smell.
- Limbs and Claws – There limbs are long and weak while their middle claw is the most largest and powerful.
- Body – The body is covered with coarse guard hairs up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) long, with a finer undercoat. The green algae that lives between their microscopic scales on the surface of the guard hairs gives the sloth its greenish appearance that serves as camouflage.
- Color – Adults are blackish-grey over most of the body, with darker patches distributed over the backs, shoulders, and hips. Males have a bright yellow or orange patch on the back, divided by a central black stripe. As their name implies, they have a pale yellow patch on the throat.
- Eyes – The eyes are large and forward facing for binocular vision, with round pupils. Unusually, they appear to lack any cone cells in the retina, suggesting that the sloth is unable to see color.
- Vertebrate – The sloth has nine cervical vertebrae, giving it extreme flexibility. As a result, a pale-throated sloth can bend its head backwards and forwards through 270° and rotate it through 330°.
- Mouth – The mouth is lined by a black colored mucosa, although the large and heavy tongue is pink. The palate is wrinkled in texture, and the tongue is lined with numerous grooves, apparently adaptations to the sloth’s diet.
- Teeth – Like other three-toed sloths, it has just five teeth on each side of the upper jaw, and four on each side of the lower jaw; these are all simple and rounded in shape, with the front teeth in the upper jaw being much smaller than the others.
Watch This
Pale-Throated Sloths In Guyana
These very slow creatures can be quite captivating. They can be found in the rainforest of Guyana, one can be found in a wildlife rehabilitation located in Surama and a few are found in the Zoo located in Georgetown. Their lifestyle and reproduction is fascinating. They are the slowest mammals in the world!
Article References:
- http://www.nhptv.org/wild/bradypodidae.asp
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-toed_sloth
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloth
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale-throated_sloth
- http://www.arkive.org/pale-throated-three-toed-sloth/bradypus-tridactylus/
