The slowest mammal
A sloth moves about 40 metres in a day. Its top speed is around a quarter of a mile an hour.
Amazon rainforest
Brown-throated three-toed sloth
Bradypus variegatus
A shaggy, grey-brown animal with long arms, hooked claws and a face that seems to smile.
- Size
- About 60cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rainforest treetops from Central America to Brazil
Creeps after you, very, very slowly. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Sloth
Good to know
Six things about the sloth
A coat that grows plants
Algae grows in its fur and turns it green, which helps to hide it. Moths live in there too.
Once a week
It climbs down to the ground about once a week to go to the toilet, and nobody is sure why.
A neck like an owl
It has extra bones in its neck and can turn its head almost all the way round.
A good swimmer
Sloths swim three times faster than they climb, and can hold their breath for a long time.
Hanging on
Its claws lock shut, so it can hang upside down without using any effort, even asleep.
The real thing
Photos of the sloth
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Look for a round, still lump high in a cecropia tree, which has big hand-shaped leaves. In Costa Rica, guides find them every day.
How to help
Never pay to hold a sloth for a photo: they are taken from the wild and suffer. Support rescue centres that return them to the forest.
Keep going