Range and Habitat: Southern two-toed sloths occur in the tropical forest canopies of northern South America including the countries of Venezuela, the Guyanas, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Two-toed sloths are arboreal (tree-dwelling), staying high in the canopy of the tropical rainforests.
Two-toed sloths are slow moving, solitary animals that spend most of their life hanging upside down from tree branches, whether sleeping, eating, mating, or giving birth. They are also surprisingly good swimmers, which helps when flooding occurs. They are primarily nocturnal, sleeping up to 15 hours during the day, and waking during the night to feed.
Two-toed sloths are primarily herbivores, eating leaves, small twigs, and fruits. On occasion two-toed sloths have been known to eat insects and other small prey. They obtain water from vegetation and by lapping dew from leaves.
Fun Facts: Because their body is designed to hang upside down, they are physically incapable of truly walking and basically crawl when on the ground. Sloths have an extremely slow metabolism and have the lowest body temperature of any mammal. Unlike most mammals, their body temperature and metabolism will fluctuate throughout the day according to the environmental temperature.
