Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth - Behaviour

Behaviour

Two-toed sloths spend most of their time in trees, though they may travel on the ground to move to a new tree. They are strictly nocturnal, moving slowly through the canopy for about eight hours each night, and spending the day sleeping in tangles of lianas. They move only very slowly, typically at around 0.14 metres per second (0.46 ft/s), although they can move up to 50% faster when excited. They are solitary in the wild, and, aside from mothers with young, it is unusual for two to be found in a tree at the same time.

The name "sloth" means "lazy," but the slow movements of this animal are actually an adaptation for surviving on a low-energy diet of leaves. These sloths have half the metabolic rate of a typical mammal of the same size. Sloths have very poor eyesight and hearing, and rely almost entirely on their senses of touch and smell to find food.

This species often exhibits exaggerated wobbling of the head. Another trait of this sloth is that it often spits when the mouth opens. The saliva often accumulates on the lower lip, giving the creature a comical appearance.

Two-toed sloths hang from tree branches, suspended by their huge, hook-like claws. The clinging behaviour is a reflex action, and sloths are found still hanging from trees after they die. The sloth spends almost its entire life, including eating, sleeping, mating, and giving birth, hanging upside down tree branches. The only time that sloths are normally found right side up is when they descend to the ground to defecate, which they only do about once every three to eight days.

Sloths have many predators, including the jaguars, ocelots, harpy eagles, margays, and anacondas. If threatened, sloths can defend themselves by slashing out at a predator with their huge claws or biting with their sharp cheek teeth. However, a sloth's main defense is to avoid being attacked in the first place. The two-toed sloth can survive wounds that would be fatal to another mammal its size. The sloth's slow, deliberate movements and algae-covered fur make them difficult for predators to spot from a distance. Their treetop home is also out of reach for many larger predators.

Their long, coarse fur also protects them from sun and rain. Their fur, unlike other mammals, flows from belly to top, not top to belly, allowing rainwater to slide off the fur while the animal is hanging upside down.

Hoffmann's two-toed sloth inhabits a range of different trees within its habitat, although it seems to prefer those with plentiful lianas and direct sunlight. They have a typical home range of about 2 to 4 hectares (4.9 to 9.9 acres), and may spend most of their lives travelling between just 25 or so trees.