Fun Facts About Sloths
Today is International Sloth Day!
Have you ever seen a sloth? You may have seen them high up on a branch slowly moving around and eating leaves. These sloths do a lot more than just move slowly though! It is important to celebrate international sloth day to talk about how sloths help our ecosystem and are a significant piece of our planet.
Why Do We Celebrate This Day?
International Sloth Day was formed to talk about more than just these fun creatures that move slowly and look like they have funky haircuts! Sloths keep the forests healthy, and they are an important part of the food chain in South and Central America. They also help to protect and benefit many species in their ecosystem!
There are two different types of sloths, some that are two-toed and some that are tree-toed. Altogether there are six species of sloths in the world. Unfortunately, some of these species are on the endangered list or on the vulnerable list. Sloths are experiencing habitat loss because forests are being chopped down where they live. With the loss of homes also comes the loss of food because sloths eat the leaves on the trees that are being cut down. There are also poachers that go after sloths and illegally hunt them. Because they are slow-moving, they are not able to defend against hunters.
Fun Facts About Sloths
Here are some of our favourite facts about these little creatures!
The extinct giant ground sloths were some of the only mammals that had digestive systems large enough to process the huge avocado seeds whole. They feasted on the fruit and then dispersed the seeds far and wide.
Sloths are 3x stronger than humans! Sloths are the undisputed pull-up world champions. From the moment they are born sloths are able to lift their entire body weight upwards with just one arm. Not only that, but sloths have 30% less muscle mass than similar-sized mammals and are over three times stronger than the average human.
Sloths are blind during daylight hours. They have a very rare condition called rod monochromacy which means that they completely lack cone cells in their eyes. As a result, all sloths are colour-blind, can only see poorly in dim light and are completely blind in bright daylight. Thankfully, sloths compensate for such poor vision by having a phenomenal sense of smell and a great spatial memory!
How You Can Help?
There are some things you can do to help our sloth friends!
Learn About Sloths
Read up on these special animals! Educating yourself about sloths is the first step, so way to go!
Be Green!
One of the ways that you can help is by making sustainable choices in your everyday life! Even little acts can reduce waste and help protect the environment and all the animals that live on it! There are also specific products that you can use such as palm oil since it is one of the main reasons that the forest is being cut down in Central America.
Donate
You can also donate to reputable organizations. These organizations will work toward helping with research, protection for sloths, and education programs. Some organizations you can donate to are WWF for their Adopt a Sloth project, the Sloth Conservation, and Rain Forest Alliance. In addition to these organizations, you could also donate to causes affecting the rain forests since that is the main threat to sloths. Some of these organizations include Amazon Watch, the Rainforest Action Network, and the Rainforest Trust.
Volunteer
You can even find volunteer opportunities to help with education, fundraising, and other activities! You can look at organizations such as the Sloth Conservation Foundation and experiential tourism.
