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By: Tatiana Mc Keever and Janset Askin This page will be filled with fun and interesting facts about sloths, riddled with small ways you can help save them, their environment, and the world around you. You will also learn about a sloth's natural habitat, it's basic information, and many other things like natural predators, diet, and reasons for extinction. Sloths are not very helpful in any way directly to you it may seem, but they are in the environment. It a few short years scientifically, many animals will be at risk of extinction, or it will be to late and they will be extinct. We now must use our technology, knowledge, and will power to band together and save these amazing animals, because 60 million years of evolution will just not be enough to save these animals for generations to come.

In our world today, it is presumed that sloths are sleepy misfits! Yet, science has proven that assumption to be wrong. On average, a sloth will only sleep for 9-10 hrs in a day total, roughly the same amount as a human. Whereas the rest of the time, they rest. For 5-6 hr. spurts, sloths will sit, stay, and not rollover! These adorable guys and gals set up camp in a sunny, hidden, leafy spot and wait out the day, watching the ongoing excitement of the rainforests from high up.

Being so high up, it is frequently assumed that they are free of predators. Yet, being a sloth can have it's disadvantages. With only mild biting and clawing for defense, these nearly harmless creatures are often swooped straight from their hiding spots by harpy eagles, and carried off to their predators nests to be devoured. Being the size of a small dog (weighing in at only 9 lbs. on average) these mammals can fall into some pretty sticky situations. Wild and stray dogs will often spot them and think meal time, pouncing on the tree and shaking the sloth down to it's doom. To survive in the treetops of Central and South America, you've got to have some serious natural adaptions, and luckily, these little creatures certainly do. With 60 million years of evolution on their sides, sloths can overcome multiple natural disasters and predicaments. With an elongated spine and extra vertebrae, sloths have a 270 degree turntable in their necks alone. Their curved claws allow for maximum grip and traction on the smooth and slippery vines and branches of trees. As a natural protection, algae grows within the fur of the animals, allowing for camouflage and scent reduction.

Sloths not only have gained physical traits, but adaptations relating to their diets and other behaviors as well. By being minimalistic movers, they find themselves content with a scarce diet. Consuming only leaves, berries, flowers, and fruits native to their trees, their bodies grab hold and make use of only the water within those substances. Eating so little, they have gained quite a remarkable ability. They only go to the bathroom once a week, sliding down to the base of the tree and quickly back-up!

Sadly, in today's world, you can't survive on nature alone. Every day, sloths are rattled out of their trees by chainsaws, cutting down their homes. They are uprooted by deforestation, carried away by people to new areas because their last forest was placed onto loading trucks and plastic wrapped. They are forced to walk for miles in hopes of finding a mate to carry on their genes, usually during that process wounded or killed. YouTube and many other sites are riddled with videos of sloths attempting to cross roads and swim through rivers and swimming pools. Sloths, climbing humbly through the trees are zapped out when they mistake an electrical cord for a branch.

It is anyone's biggest hope to influence something, and now we must. Sloths are in danger of extinction, and we can't risk losing another species. Please visit [|www.slothsanctuary.com] for further information, tips, donation possibilities, and fun facts relating to sloths. Remember, this in your environment too. We all live on this earth, take it to heart. We want to thank you for visiting our site and say that sloths are a personal love of ours. We decided to research this topic, sloths, because of a joke between friends. Yet, once we really began researching these amazing animals, we realized they were much, much more than just an everyday sleepy animal. Originally, we planned on researching both sloths and anteaters, but how could we not devote an entire page to these evolutionary wonders? They truly amazed us, and we hope you feel encouraged to do something good for their, yours, and the world's environment.

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CITES:

[] New World Encyclopedia - Funk and Wagnall Ranger Rick Volume 42- Elizabeth Schleichert [] []