Hanging Around with Sloths

Three-toed sloth in the Amazon

One of the joys of travel is seeing animals in their natural habitat.  During our travels to Central and South America we have seen animals that we may have previously seen in a zoo. But they're in trees. Sloths fall into this category, although they don't fall out of trees very often. They don't even move out of trees, except once a week to take care of their elimination needs, shall we say. The rest of the time, they hang upside down in a tree and rarely move. They are categorized by the number of toes--the three-toed sloth and the two-toed sloth, although they both actually have the same number of toes.

And sloths are cute, although their fur and skin are home to various forms of life--green algae and sloth moths, for example, all part of the sloth ecosystem. We saw the little guy in the photo above in the Amazon, just hanging out in a tree and watching humans watch him or her. Count the number of toes--he's a three-toed sloth.

The sloth in the photos below is definitely female. Look carefully behind the leaf in the second photos and you'll see her baby, its head visible under her arm. She's not in the wild, unless you consider a resort the wild. She was, as a matter of fact, just outside the spa. She and her baby are safe there, except for tourists and camera. She's a two-toed sloth. 

Mama Sloth hanging out in a tree near the spa. 

The baby is behind the leaves, peeking from under Mom's arm.