Page 56 - World of Animals - Issue #31

Sleeping for 15 hours a
day doesn’t make sloths
lazy, just economical
with their energy

Slow and steady, but not lazy

If sloths aren’t just lazing around, why are they so slow?
The sloth’s leisurely speed is mostly due to Sloths have considerably less muscle tissue DID YOU
their slow metabolic rate. As they are arboreal than other animals of their size, so they only KNOW?
folivores (they eat only leaves and plants), their move when necessary. They are great energy Most sloths don’t have
multichambered stomachs can digest strong conservers in their day-to-day lives, but can incisors. They have only ten
chemicals in the different leaves they eat, using move faster if they are threatened by a predator upper teeth and eight lower
symbiotic bacteria to break them down. But the – though they will be completely worn out by teeth, which are rooted deep in
process takes some time, and as a result their the end of the chase. Sloths maintain a low their jaw and have no enamel
stomach is constantly full. One meal could take body temperature – around 34 degrees Celsius coating. They trim down
a week or even a month to move through the (93 degrees Fahrenheit) – which dips when they leaves using just their
sloth’s digestive system, which is why they don’t sleep for around 15 hours per day, so relatively tough lips.
need the toilet very often. little energy is needed to keep them warm.

56

054-057_WOA31_Sloths.indd 56 02/03/2016 15:14