This is a hard question - I have so many fun facts about sloths! My favourite is probably that on average it takes a sloth 30 days to digest a single leaf (I discovered this during my PhD by feeding sloths a natural red dye and waiting for red poop to appear). I actually wrote my 10 favorite sloth facts for the BBC recently. You can check them out here: 10 facts about sloths.
And the biggest misconception to clear up is probably the lazy one. When sloths were first discovered they were described in the literature as the "lowest form of existence". They didn’t really get off on a very good foot. People often believe that sloths sleep for 23 hours a day, or that they can spend an entire week and not move. They’ve got stuck with this lazy stigma and everyone believes it because it’s sort of a nice story. What we’re actually finding out is that sloths don’t sleep that much at all. They only sleep for about 10-12 hours a day (I know some humans who sleep more than that!). The rest of the time they are moving, but they’re just doing everything really, really slowly (they move a bit like they are swimming through a lake of Nutella).
Actually, this slowness is an amazing way to survive. When you don’t have the energy or physical capability to run away from a predator then you have to rely on them not seeing you in the first place. Sloths are basically in stealth mode 24/7. If they are able to successfully hide from sharp-eyed predators like jaguars, then they don't have any problems hiding from human observers. This is why they have been so poorly researched, and it is why we know so little about wild sloth behaviour. They have gone completely under the radar for decades. It is only in recent years that we are beginning to see just how fascinating the sloth lifestyle is – and we still have so much to learn.
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Hi Rebecca, thanks for doing this AMA.
What is your favorite Sloth fact? Any misconceptions about Sloths you'd like to clear up?
This is a hard question - I have so many fun facts about sloths! My favourite is probably that on average it takes a sloth 30 days to digest a single leaf (I discovered this during my PhD by feeding sloths a natural red dye and waiting for red poop to appear). I actually wrote my 10 favorite sloth facts for the BBC recently. You can check them out here:
10 facts about sloths.
And the biggest misconception to clear up is probably the lazy one. When sloths were first discovered they were described in the literature as the "lowest form of existence". They didn’t really get off on a very good foot. People often believe that sloths sleep for 23 hours a day, or that they can spend an entire week and not move. They’ve got stuck with this lazy stigma and everyone believes it because it’s sort of a nice story. What we’re actually finding out is that sloths don’t sleep that much at all. They only sleep for about 10-12 hours a day (I know some humans who sleep more than that!). The rest of the time they are moving, but they’re just doing everything really, really slowly (they move a bit like they are swimming through a lake of Nutella).
Actually, this slowness is an amazing way to survive. When you don’t have the energy or physical capability to run away from a predator then you have to rely on them not seeing you in the first place. Sloths are basically in stealth mode 24/7. If they are able to successfully hide from sharp-eyed predators like jaguars, then they don't have any problems hiding from human observers. This is why they have been so poorly researched, and it is why we know so little about wild sloth behaviour. They have gone completely under the radar for decades. It is only in recent years that we are beginning to see just how fascinating the sloth lifestyle is – and we still have so much to learn.