Sloths
By Lauren Baker
Sloths are Herbivores. They are mammals and have been around on earth for millions of years. There are several different species of Sloths, they include; The Pygmy three-toed sloth, Maned sloth, Pale throated sloth, Brown throated sloth, Linnaeus two-toed sloth and Hoffmans two-toed sloth.
Lifestyle
Sloths can sleep for up to twenty hours a day. When sloths are awake they mainly go to the toilet (when they gotta go they gotta go) when they have to go to the toilet they have to climb down the tree which can be very dangerous and sometimes decide to go for a walk or a swim. Sloths happen to be very good swimmers because prehistoric sloths used to swim down to the bottom of a river to get food such a grass and seaweed.
Sad fact: Sometimes sloths mistake their arms for tree branches and when they go to grab it they fall to their deaths :(
Habitats
All sloths live in rain forests mainly in South America. Many sloths live in sanctuaries in South America for protection. A common disease in the sanctuaries is a skin disease which they can treat with a special cream. This disease is usually caused on baby sloths from what the sanctuaries feed them (don't worry this disease isn't harmful hit is just irritating and very easy to fix). In sanctuaries sloths usually hand from branches outside or inside in cots. For a video on the skin disease click on the link to the video page:
Diet
Sloths are herbivores, meaning they only eat plants and leaves. Wild baby sloths drink sloth milk but when in a sanctuary are fed goat's milk because sloth's milk is hard to find.
Lifespan
Sloths can live for a very long time. They have been found to live up to 40 years in zoos! They usually live up to 25-30 years though. You can understand why they live for that long though! All they do is sleep and eat! That would make you live for a very long time!