The Three Toed Sloth of Costa Rica
An Exercise in Taking it Easy; the Slowest Moving Mammal
Feel like life is moving too fast? Take a lesson from the sloth, this gentle creature with a permanent smile spends his life hanging out watching life happen around him.
The sloth is a fascinating creature and a monument to natural survival. Central and South America was once home to giant ground sloths as big as elephants which were hunted to extinction by early man. However the species adapted to save itself, resulting in the varieties of two and three toed sloths which are seen today. The sloth has scaled the trees, diminished greatly in size and taken on several protective aspects which have ensured its survival.
Slow Slow Steps
Almost everything about a sloth is slow (they scratch at normal speed), and for good reason – energy conservation. Their diet of leaves, twigs and buds provides little protein or energy and they lack any enzyme to break down the cellulose present in the leaves. Sloth digestion is very slow – it takes about 4 weeks for food to move through their system, and they rely, as Howler Monkeys, on internal fermentation to release nutrients.
Slow Metabolism
Due to their slow metabolism, sloths have low, though variable, body temperatures. They are easy to spot in the early morning as they must find a warm open area to soak up the sun. The sun provides the energy and heat to raise their body temperatures and boost their fermentation process. Sloths have very unusual hair – it actually soaks up water, another reason why early morning sunbathing is so important. During wet seasons, especially when there are many cloudy days, sloths can die from lack of body heat.
The Sloth Tree
While a sloth feeds from as many as 40 trees, they will spend most of their time in just a few and each will have a favourite tree. In Costa Rica the Cecropia tree is called the sloth tree as these are often the best places to spot sloths. The Cercropia is not everyone’s favourite, but they do seem favoured by many and the tree’s open branches and large, fairly sparse leaves allow for good sloth spotting.
Digestive Process
Once a week the sloth will descend from the safety of the canopy to urinate and defecate. The three toed sloth digs a small hole with its tail, and when finished with his weekly business will cover the hole with leaves. A sloth will routinely shed about a third of his body weight in his weekly visit. Coming down to the ground is a dangerous business, the sloth moves very slowly down and back up the tree often using the opportunity to change trees. His speed could be seen as a method of protecting himself – already well camouflaged , his slow movements do not alert any would be predators of his whereabouts. Burying his waste would also help disguise his presence.
Coat As Habitat
Sloths have thick shaggy coats which act as insulation for their low body heat. The hairs are very unusual in that they have cracks (three toed sloth) or channels (two toed sloths) which provide an ideal environment for certain types of green algae. This algae grows throughout the fur and gives an overall green tinge to the coat. No-one really knows why this relationship exists but it is thought to act as camouflage. Given that each hair soaks up water and funnels it to its base, it is also believed that the algae is able to pass nutrients to the sloth through his skin. The coat also provides a home for the sloth moth, beetles and mites. Each adult sloth can play host to 100 moths and a thousand beetles. The entire life cycle of beetle and moth is connected with the sloth, each spending its larval period in sloth dung, and their adult period eating the algae. What the sloth gets out of this special relationship we don’t quite know.
Sloth Rescue
Once out of the canopy sloths are unfortunately easy targets for dogs and cars. Luckily there are sloth rescue centers like this one in Costa Rica.
