Today is International Sloth Day!
I have been feeling a bit Sloth-like myself lately, so I thought I would learn more about them.
Hmmmm, I am thinking I need a new role model….these beasts are actually rather gross…..as this is what I discovered…..
Sloths are native to the rainforests of Central and South America. Known for being slow, they spend most of their time hanging upside down on tree branches in rainforest canopies. They usually sleep between fifteen and twenty hours a day, and when they are awake, they often sit motionless. They are the slowest mammal on Earth, traveling 41 yards a day on average, less than half the length of a football field. Although they move slowly on land, they are quite agile in water, being able to swim about three times as fast as they can walk. They also can hold their breath for up to forty minutes. They mainly subsist on a vegetarian diet, eating leaves, shoots, and fruit. Because their metabolism is so slow, it takes them close to a month to digest a single leaf.
Sloths have two layers of fur, with the outer layer being long and coarse and housing fungi and insects like beetles, cockroaches, and moths. The fur also is often home to algae, which gives it a green hue and helps the sloth camouflage itself amongst vegetation. Another thing that sloths keep close to themselves is their young. A baby sloth will cling to its mother for six months after birth, and then will stay close to her for two to four years afterward.
There are six species of sloths, which are divided into either three-toed sloths or two-toed sloths. The distinction is in the number of digits on their front limbs—both have three digits on their back feet. Two-toed sloths are a bit larger, while three-toed sloths are more docile and are found in fewer areas of the rainforest. Sloths are about two and a half feet in length and usually weigh between nine and seventeen pounds. There were more species of sloths in the past, and some were much larger. For example, the extinct giant ground sloth grew between ten and twenty feet in length.
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See also: Goats Gone…Mexican?
Soooo, since today is International Sloth Day, we will all be excused from our normal industriousness without guilt…but come tomorrow, be sure to remove all the algae and insects from your “fur”, and perhaps do that laundry that has been piling up…..😁