Facts
The two-toed sloth is a very interesting
and (in our opinion) “cute” animal. Its face is shaped in a way
that it always looks like it is smiling and its slow movement
makes it easy to observe. There are many interesting or “cool”
things about the two-toed sloth.
· Sloths have a very slow digestive system that can take up to a
month to digest food; because of this they only defecate once a
week (Felton-Church, 2000).
· Besides being different from three-toed sloths in amount of
digits on the front limbs, two-toed sloths are also slightly
larger than three-toed sloths (Feldhamer, 2007).
· As McCrane found, bright light can distress young sloths (as
cited in Adam, 1999).
· Goffart noticed that when cold, sloths do not shiver, but
instead curl up in attempt to conserve heat (as cited in Adam,
1999).
· Known for being lazy, sloths can sleep up to 18 hours a day
(Klein, n.d.).
· Despite their inability to efficiently move along the forest
floor, sloths are fairly good swimmers (Feldhamer, 2007).
· While most mammals have 7 cervical vertebrae, two-toed sloths
may have 5, 6 or even 8 (Feldhamer, 2007).
· Though mostly silent, two-toed sloths will hiss, cry or moan
if distressed (Felton-Church, 2000).
· Eisenberg and Maliniak found that groups of C. didactylus in
captivity tended to all defecate at the same time (as cited in
Adam, 1999).
For other cool facts about Linnaeus's Two-Toed Sloth, you can visit the following related web page: