Don’t you love animal’s smiles? I know I do. My favorite animal smile is a sloth’s smile, but did you know they actually don’t smile. Here are the top 8 incredible facts about sloths. You won’t believe number 1.

8.Sloths Do Almost Everything In Trees

Sloths do almost everything in trees. They eat, sleep, give birth, and other things. They do this in order to protect themselves from predators which lay on the ground.

7.Sloths Are Only Awake For 9 Hours

Sloths are only awake for about 9 hours a day. They use the other 15 hours to sleep and get back energy. In the 9 hours they are awake they do things such as eat, move trees, use the restroom, and more. According to World WIldLife, “They maintain a low body temperature of about 86°F-93°F and move in and out of shade to regulate their body temperature.”

6.Sloths Can Starve on a Full Stomach

Unlike most mammals, sloths have given up the option to control their body temperature. They did this so they can save energy. They completely rely on the environment. According to Sloth  Conservation, “If they get too cold, the special microbes that live in their stomachs can die, and the sloth can no longer digest the leaves that it eats.” 

5.It Takes Sloths 30 Days to Digest a Leaf

Sloths have the slowest metabolic rate of any mammal. That means they take the longest to

digest anything. Sloths have a huge stomach that takes up 30% of their body mass. A sloth’s huge stomach is supported by 46 ribs. Sloths also have the most amount of ribs than any other mammal.

4.Sloths Are Faster in Water Than on Land

Sloths spend most of their time in trees, but they are really great swimmers! When swimming in water they are faster than on land. According to Sloth  Conservation, “Three-fingered sloths have two more neck vertebrae than any other mammal. This allows them to turn their heads through 270° and effortlessly keep their nose above water when swimming.”.

3.Both Two and Three Toed Sloths Have The Same Amount Of Toes

According to Mentalfloss,  “Both have three toes on each hind limb. The real difference applies to the fingers on their forelimbs. One family has two claws, while the other has three”. For groups to better understand which is which they started calling them two fingered and three fingered sloths. 

2.Sloths Are Three Times Stronger Than Us

From birth sloths have the ability to do a pull-up with one arm. According to Sloth  Conservation, “Sloths have 30% less muscle mass than similar sized mammals and are over three times stronger than the average human”. Sloths’ special hands and feet allow them to hang upside down for a longer period of time without using any energy. This trait allows them to sleep upside down.

1.Without Sloths We Wouldn’t Have Avocados

According to  Sloth  Conservation, “The extinct giant ground sloths were some of the only mammals that had digestive systems large enough to process the huge avocado seeds whole. They feasted on the fruit and then dispersed the seeds far and wide”. Every tree sloth you see today is a descendant from a giant ground sloth that has evolved. They think the tallest giant ground sloth was over 6 meters or 19 feet tall.

Did you learn something new about sloths? I know I did. Learning new things about sloths when writing this was fun. If you liked this story maybe you could learn something new. Here is a site you should visit: https://www.rd.com/list/animal-facts-most-interesting-creatures/ 

The sites I used were: https://slothconservation.org/10-incredible-facts-about-the-sloth/ 

https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/why-are-sloths-slow-and-six-other-sloth