There are 5 different species of sloths. The sloths at the Brandwyine Zoo are Hoffman's two toed sloths.
    A sloth can be the size of a small dog. It weighs about 9-20 lb. Its length is about 21-29 in. It has a flat, short head with a snub nose and tiny ears. Its entire body is covered with grayish brown hair. Its tail is small. Its limbs are long and well developed, and it has long curved claws to hook over and grasp tree limbs.  All sloths have 3 toes, even two toed sloths. A two toed sloth has 3 toes, but 2 claws. Sloths don't have any incisor teeth.
    The sloth lives in tropical forests in South and Central America, especially Peru and Central Brazil.
    It is the slowest animal in the world. In fact it's so slow green algae sometimes grows on its fur. You can hardly tell it from the surrounding moss and plants, and it is camouflaged from its enemies. Sloths have special hair that encourage algae.
    A sloth can only have one baby at a time. The baby has to stay on the mom's back until it is old enough to take care of itself. A baby two toed sloth clings to its mother while she hangs up-side down. Sloths give birth to their babies with their stomach facing up. Sloths nearly spend all their life in the up-side down position. They eat, sleep, and mate in that position. The breeding season is in March and April and gestation last 120 days.
    Sloths eat animal matter like bird eggs, nestlings and a wide variety of insects, lizards and carrion. In the zoo, they eat carrots, yams, corn on the cob, spinach, bananas, seasonal fruits, omnivore biscuits, marmoset diet and monkey biscuits.

eating a carrot

    Sloths live up to 20 years in the wild and up to 32 years in the zoo. In the wild they hang most of their lives with their faces turned up and back facing down. They spend most of their days sleeping. They eat sleep and mate and give birth upside down. Sloths only come down on the ground about once a week to defecate and urinate. They don't stay on the ground long because they have a lot of difficulty moving, which makes them very vulnerable to predators.
    At the Brandywine Zoo there are two sloths, a male and a female. The male's name is Speedy. He was born at the Brookfield Zoo at 1:00 p.m. on December 5, 1991. The female whose name is Cali was born on October 25, 1999. She came from the Virginia Zoological Park in Norfolk, Virginia.

For more information go to:
http://www.torontozoo.com/Meet_the_animals/sloth.html
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/1478/sloth-pl.html
http://www.geocities.com/animgirl_99/sloths.html
http://zoo.interaccess.com/tour/factsheets/mammals/sloth.html
http://www.sazoo-aq.org/sloth.html
                                                                                    by Sunday
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