How is a sloth adapted to its habitat

It is thought that in the Amazon rainforest there are over 2, species of birds and 1, species of fish. There is also thought to be 50, kinds of insects in a single square mile. Sloths live high in the branches of the forests of Central and South America. Living up high keeps them away from predators such as jaguars. They live on a diet of leaves, which is low in nutrients and calories. To survive on this poor diet, sloths have evolved a very slow metabolism to save energy.

The hands and feet of this sloth species are highly specialized, with naked, heavily calloused soles and palms. Sloths are slow-moving animals that are typically found in lowland rainforests in Mesoamerica and South America. These animals live arboreal lifestyles, meaning that they spend most of their time up in trees. Uniquely, sloths do almost everything upside down! This includes eating, sleeping, mating, and giving birth!

When you come visit the sloth habitat at the Zoo, you will see we hang the sloth food bowls from the trees so they can eat upside down just like they would in the wild. If you are lucky, you may just see them hanging from their two hind limbs, reaching down to grab some veggies out of a bowl. As sloths are herbivorous, eating mostly plants, we feed the sloths here at the Zoo a wide variety of foods, including romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, grapes, green beans, sweet potato, yellow squash, carrots, and leafeater biscuits.

They show us their preferences by eagerly taking their favorite items when they are hand-fed by care staff, and by keeping their mouths closed when we offer them a less preferred item. While these tones match tree trunks and branches, the animals have another layer of camouflage: Green algae grow from their hair, enabling them to better blend into the leaves and vines of the treetop canopy. Their extremely slow movements might also help conceal them from predators that rely on vision to hunt.

With their slow speed, sloths might seem like easy prey for anacondas, boas, wild cats, eagles and hawks. However, they use their long, sharp claws -- normally used to hold onto branches -- and very sharp teeth to fiercely defend themselves. Two-toed sloths can tilt their heads 45 degrees backward to watch for predators. Three-toed sloths have nine cervical vertebrae -- four more than their relatives -- that enable them to rotate their heads degrees to scan for threats.

An undercoat guards their skin, while the longer, outer hairs hang down at an angle, providing a natural path for water to flow off the animal.