The SLOTH!

CLASSIFICATION     GENERAL INFO    SPECIAL FEATURES   HABITAT   DIET     REPRODUCTION    HUMAN IMPACT         WEBLINKS        SOURCES  

CLASSIFICATION:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Xenarthra
Family: Megalonychidae 
Genus/Species:
  Choloepus didactylus   
     (Two-toed Sloth)

SPECIAL FEATURES- Once a week the sloth moves to the bottom of the tree it lives in to poop and pee. The sloth spends most of its life upside down and does most things upside down (such as eat, sleep, mate, give birth etc.)  The two-toed sloth does not have a tail and its front and back legs are closer to the same size.  The sloth is the one of the slowest moving animals on earth! 

When a sloth is well fed, its stomach makes up two thirds of its body wait, and the digestive process can take as long as a month or more to complete.
Just because the sloth is almost defenseless, doesn't mean it doesn't kick bum.  Predators do not pose special problems: in the trees sloth's have good camouflage and, moving only slowly, do not attract attention. Only during their infrequent visits to ground level do they become vulnerable. Despite their adaptation to living in trees, sloth's make competent swimmers.

HUMAN IMPACT: They are hunted by poachers and evil people.
Until recent times, large ground-dwelling sloth's of the Megatherium type lived in North America, but along with many other species they became extinct immediately after the arrival of humans on the continent.

DIET:
Sloth's eat leaves and buds. The two-toed species also eat twigs, fruits, and small prey. Their low rate of metabolism enables them to live on relatively little food.  Their teeth grow continuously, as they are worn down by the grinding of their food. They don't drink but get their water from eating juicy leaves & licking dewdrops.