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Choloepus didactylussouthern two-toed sloth

By Ali Felton-Church

Ge­o­graphic Range

Found in the trop­i­cal for­est canopies of Cen­tral Amer­ica and north­ern South Amer­ica, in­clud­ing por­tions of Brazil and Peru.

Habi­tat

Choloe­pus di­dacty­lus is strictly ar­bo­real, stay­ing high in the canopy of the trop­i­cal rain forests, and main­tain­ing a range of about 10-acres.

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Two-toed sloths have been called the slow­est an­i­mals on earth. Rang­ing in length from 21 to 29 inches, Choloe­pus di­dacty­lus is roughly the size and shape of a small dog. The body is com­posed of a short neck (only 6-7 ver­te­brae) with four long limbs of equal length, end­ing in two curved claws. The head is short and flat, with a snub nose, rudi­men­tary ears, and large eyes.

Choloe­pus di­dacty­lus are cov­ered in long brown­ish-grey hair that curves from stom­ach to back, op­po­site that of most mam­mals. A unique fea­ture of this fur is that each strand has grooves which col­lect algae, giv­ing the sloth a green­ish tint and cam­ou­flag­ing it from preda­tors.

The teeth of the two-toed sloth are small, sim­ple mo­lars that are con­ti­nously grow­ing but con­stantly ground down by the mas­ti­ca­tion of food. To com­pen­sate for a lack of sharp teeth, Choloe­pus di­dacty­lus has hard­ened lips which act to shear and crop leaves.

  • Range mass
    4 to 8 kg
    8.81 to 17.62 lb

Re­pro­duc­tion

Fe­males of this species of sloth reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at 3 years of age, males reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity be­tween 4 and 5. After a ges­ta­tion pe­riod of six months, fe­males give birth to one off­spring each year. When the young are born they are 10 inches in length and weigh 12 ounces. They cling to their mother's belly for 5 weeks until they have the strength to move on their own.

  • Key Reproductive Features
  • gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
  • sexual
  • Average number of offspring
    1
    AnAge
  • Average gestation period
    279 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    1279 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    Sex: male
    1644 days
    AnAge

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Be­hav­ior

Sloths move slowly and de­lib­er­ately. They spend most of their life hang­ing up­side-down from tree branches, whether sleep­ing, eat­ing, mat­ing, or giv­ing birth. They de­scend to the ground only to change trees (food source) or to defe­cate. They have a low meta­bolic rate and defe­cate only once each week. Food re­mains in their rel­a­tively short di­ges­tive tract for ap­prox­i­mately one month. Choloe­pus di­dacty­lus can move around quite well in the trees (125 feet per day), but are sig­nif­i­cantly less mo­bile on the ground, drag­ging their body across the ground. Sloths are also good swim­mers, hav­ing a stream­lined body and fur that has evolved for wet, trop­i­cal weather.

These sloths are pri­mar­ily noc­tur­nal, sleep­ing for 15 hours dur­ing the day, and wak­ing dur­ing the night only to feed. The sloths eat by grasp­ing veg­e­ta­tion with one foot and pulling it to their mouths.

Two-toed sloths are well cam­ou­flaged in tree canopies. Their most com­mon rest­ing po­si­tion is curled into a ball in the branches of a tree and re­sem­bles ei­ther a ter­mite nest or a knot in the wood. This, com­bined with the green color of their fur, makes for great pro­tec­tion from preda­tors. Sloths have been known to de­fend them­selves with their claws and teeth, but they are usu­ally quite docile, re­ly­ing pri­mar­ily on cam­ou­flage to pro­tect them. Two-toed sloths are also mostly silent, but can let out hisses and low cries or moans if dis­tressed.

Choloe­pus di­dacty­lus are rel­a­tively soli­tary mam­mals. Groups of fe­males some­times oc­cupy the same tree, and young may in­herit the home range of their par­ents.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Food Habits

Choloe­pus di­dacty­lus feed pri­mar­ily on veg­e­ta­tion, in­clud­ing berries, leaves, small twigs, and fruits, crop­ping the leaves with their lips. On oc­ca­sion sloths have been known to eat in­sects and other small prey. They ob­tain water from veg­e­ta­tion and by lap­ping dew.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Two-toed sloths are a valu­able food source and are often hunted for their meat.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There is no di­rect neg­a­tive ef­fect of sloths on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Two-toed sloths are in se­ri­ous dan­ger of los­ing their habi­tat due to log­ging of rain forests. Aside from cap­tive an­i­mals, this is the only area in the world in which this species lives. Sev­eral or­ga­ni­za­tions are cur­rently work­ing to pro­tect these areas.

Other Com­ments

Av­er­age life span of two-toed sloths is 20 years in the wild, ages of 30 to 40 years have been recorded in cap­tiv­ity.

Con­trib­u­tors

Ali Fel­ton-Church (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Neotropical

living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.

World Map

arboreal

Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

rainforest

rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

tactile

uses touch to communicate

threatened

The term is used in the 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals to refer collectively to species categorized as Endangered (E), Vulnerable (V), Rare (R), Indeterminate (I), or Insufficiently Known (K) and in the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals to refer collectively to species categorized as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), or Vulnerable (VU).

Ref­er­ences

"Sloth-The Mam­mal" (On-line). Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 15, 1999 at http://​www.​geocities.​com/​EnchantedForest/​Dell/​5094/​SlothMammal.​html.

Hen­son Robin­son Zoo Ed­u­ca­tion De­part­ment, Oc­to­ber, 1997. "Two-Toed Sloth (Choloe­pus di­dacty­lus)" (On-line). Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 15, 1999 at http://​www.​hensonrobinsonzoo.​org/​a001.​html.

Klein, L. ""Easy Does It" For the 2-Toed Sloth" (On-line). Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 15, 1999 at http://​www.​calnative.​com/​n_​sloth.​htm.

Parker, S. 1990. Grz­imek's En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals, Vol­ume 2. Mc­Graw-Hill Pub­lish­ing Com­pany.

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Classification

Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Mammalia mammals
  • Order Pilosa sloths and anteaters
  • Family Megalonychidae two-toed sloths
  • Genus Choloepus two-toed sloths
  • Species Choloepus didactylus southern two-toed sloth