Sloth
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth
Bradypus variegatus
The classic smiling face of the neotropical canopy.
Least ConcernIUCN status
0.24km/h top speed
60.0cm body length
15.0hours asleep daily
30.0years lifespan
Speed against a 60 km/h scale — the ceiling for the fastest dragonflies.
Three-toed sloths eat leaves almost exclusively, digest them over days, and move so little that a whole ecosystem of algae, moths and beetles lives in their fur.
Habitat. Lowland and montane rainforest from Honduras to northern Argentina
Posts featuring Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth
🍃 The Slow Lane
Reading at Sloth Pace: In Defence of Doing One Thing Slowly
Every post here carries two reading times: yours, and the sloth estimate. The second one is the honest one.
🦥 Sloth Life
The Sloth Is an Ecosystem: Algae, Moths and a Fur Coat That Grows Backwards
Sloth fur has grooves, the grooves hold water, the water grows algae, and the algae feed moths that live nowhere else.
🍃 The Slow Lane
The Sloth's Secret Is Not Laziness, It Is Arithmetic
A sloth is not a failed fast animal. It is a very successful solution to a hard budgeting problem: leaves are terrible food.