ABOUT ME AND TODAYS BLOG: Sloths - DID YOU KNOW?...
So hey, I’m Sophie, a college student studying events. I’ve started to blog as part of my course and chose to do it about animals as its an interest of mine as they’re fascinating and just so interesting to find out about! I’ll be uploading a couple of times a week for the next few weeks about some of my favourite animals and what I’ve discovered about them that I think you to, would like to know. And this week I’m choosing a personal favourite, sloths! :)
So sloths, native to Central and South America, sloths eat, sleep, mate, give birth and raise their young while hanging upside-down in trees. They are gentle creatures – and there are six existing sloth species in two kinds – Bradypus and Choloepus. Despite this traditional naming, all sloths actually have long legs, and rounded heads with small ears and three toes on each rear limb, although two-toed sloths have only two digits on each forelimb. The two groups of sloths are from different, distantly related families, and are thought to have evolved their morphology via parallel evolution. Their scientific name, Bradypus, means ‘slow feet’ in Greek. And these mammals are actually faster in water than on land as they’re great swimmers.
They are nocturnal animals, which have green algae that grows on their fur to camouflage in with trees away from predators. In addition to, did you know that from the moment they are born sloths can lift their entire body weight with just one arm. They’re over three times stronger than the average human and because of specialised tendons in their hands and feet they’re able to lock into place, they have even been known to remain suspended upside down even after death! 🦥
