Jaguars and eagles are common predators of sloths.
In fact, more than half of all sloth deaths are due to predators killing them while travelling to and fro their low latrines.
There are six sub species of sloths in Central America and South America, all of which are threatened by deforestation and degradation of their habitat (tropical forests), and by illegal trafficking. Sadly, these factors often result in fatal outcomes for the creature.
Sloths are often hunted by predators such as harpy eagles, ocelots, and jaguars, who mainly rely on movement to track their prey.
Big forest cats like jaguars and ocelots, birds of prey such as harpy eagles, and large snakes like anacondas prey upon sloths. They defend themselves with their sharp claws and teeth.
The main predators of anacondas are large mammals, such as jaguars, pumas, and caimans. These animals will often eat young anacondas, but adult anacondas are too large to be eaten by most predators. Humans also threaten anacondas, as they are sometimes hunted for their skin.
Koalas are much faster than sloths. Many people attribute the speed of sloths to the koala, believing that they're somehow related. That's not the case. Although koalas spend a great deal of their time sleeping in the trees, they are still swift.
They can starve to death on a full stomach
If they get too cold, the special microbes that live in their stomachs can die, and the sloth can no longer digest the leaves that it eats.
They can cause the sloth undue distress
There has been research done that shows that sloths definitely do not like being held. When they are held, their heart rates increase and they are visibly more alert, indicating that being held by people can be very distressing and disorienting.
This extraordinary plant predator is half blind, half deaf and spends most of its time sleeping in trees. So how does a sloth's day compare to ours?
Sloths rely on a continuous rainforest canopy for survival as they are physically unable to traverse big gaps between trees. As humans encroach further and further into the rainforest, more trees are cut down and the forest is fragmented which leaves the sloths very vulnerable.
Sloths have an average body temperature of around 31 degrees, so they can't survive outside of the tropics. Oh, me? I am just hanging around. Like koalas, there's a common misconception that sloths are slow and lazy because they're always high, or something along those lines.
Sloths live in tropical forests in South and Central America, and they actually move so slowly that algae grows on their fur.
Known for their impressive hunting abilities, jaguars (Panthera onca) are both feared and revered. Weighing a hefty 56-96 kg (120-200+ lbs) they are the biggest felines living in the Western Hemisphere and the third largest cat species on Earth (after lions and tigers).
Surprisingly, the truth behind this rumor might be one of the most frequent questions we get asked here at SloCo! Sloths do NOT grab their own arms and fall to their deaths. This strange myth comes from an unpublished essay by Douglas Adams and is based on an encounter with a baby sloth.
Sloth not only subverts the livelihood of the body, taking no care for its day-to-day provisions but also slows down the mind, halting its attention to matters of great importance. Sloth hinders man in his righteous undertakings and becomes a path to ruin.
What happens if a sloth bites you? On the off chance that you do get bit by a sloth, do not be alarmed because they are not poisonous and neither are their fur or claws. Sloth bites can easily become infected, however.
Sloths are slow to anger. And equally slow to attack.
Sloths are blind in bright daylight
They have a very rare condition called rod monochromacy which means that they completely lack cone cells in their eyes. As a result all sloths are colour-blind, can only see poorly in dim light and are completely blind in bright daylight.
Sloths are ridiculously good swimmers
Sloths can swim three times faster than they can walk on land. And because of their ability to slow their heart rates to one-third its normal rate, they can also hold their breath for a whopping 40 minutes under water.
Sloths are known for their incredibly slow-moving natures, but it turns out that such sluggishness also carries over into their bathroom habits. So much so that they only defecate every five to seven days on average, and actually lose up to one-third of their body weight in a single movement!
So, do sloths have predators? Jaguars and eagles are common predators of sloths.
Only trained accredited rangers are allowed to hold a koala. This is a sensible law as it protects koalas from being stressed because a human wants to give it a hug. Koalas are wild animals and have a natural fear of humans, especially humans who they don't know.
Three-toed sloths are some of the slowest and seemingly laziest creatures in the world. Instead of evolving to eat more, they evolved to do less.
The sloth sleeps around 20 as well. But the cute and cuddly, yet deadly koala, it can sleep up to a whopping 22 hours. That's around 91% of the day!