Sloths are the slowest moving animals in the world, generally travelling no more than 38 metres a day. These tree-dwellers are found in the jungles of Central and South America. Because of the humid conditions they live in, algae grows on their thick fur, providing them with camouflage.
In 2016, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced the three-toed sloth is officially the slowest mammal on earth. Sloths spend the majority of their time eating, sleeping, and resting in jungle treetops across Central and South America. Similar to the koala, sloths do not have a nutrient-dense diet. They have a slow metabolism to cope with their low calory intake and move very slowly to preserve their energy. As they spend most of their time curled up in trees of the jungle, they are seldom met with the threat of predators thus have no need to move quickly. On average sloths travel 41 yards per day and sleep for around 15 hours.
Sloths are solitary creatures that rarely interact with one another outside of breeding season. But sloths have little time to feel lonely given their rigorous sleep schedule. Captive sloths typically sleep for 15 to 20 hours per day, while wild sloths rarely rest for more than 10 hours, according to research by the Planck Institute for Ornithology in Starnberg, Germany. Sloths prefer sleeping while curled into a ball in the fork of a tropical tree. They also like to sleep hanging by their claws from tree branches.
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