Common Name: Two-toed tree sloth

Scientific Name: Choloepus hoffmanni

Description: Sloths are perhaps most famous for their ability to live and carry out many life functions in an upside down manner. Two-toed sloths have two long claws on their fore limbs and three claws on the hind limbs. Weight varies form 4 to 8 kg. Sloths are covered with tan to greyish brown hairs. Apparently, the sloths hair is specially designed to allow algae to effectively colonize. Greenish camouflage is the most obvious advantage although it is a possibility that the sloths may somehow gain nutrition through absorption or consumption of the colony. Activity is nocturnal.

Range: Central and South America

Habitat: Tropical forests.

Diet: Primarily vegetation: leaves and fruit.

Social Life: Although this may vary by area, some grouping of sloths have been reported in ratios of one male to eleven females. Females are also more gregarious and males more solitary so this figure may be skewed. A single young is born following a lengthy gestation in excess of eleven months and clings to the mother. Maturity is reached between three and a half to four years. Lifespan has exceeded thirty years in rare instances.

Conservation: This species is listed on CITES but is not currently endangered.

Recommended LINKS & BOOKS

Dr. David Macdonald's Encyclopedia of Mammals is one of the great standards for mammal information including the sloths. Purchase it through Amazon.com by clicking on the photo to help the zoo!