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When you think of a baby sloth, you probably imagine a furry, lazy creature that likes to sleep. While it is true that these fantastic animals lack the energy it takes to… engage in strenuous activities, they are far from boring. Let’s hang out and learn five amazing facts about sloth puppies with some adorable pictures!
#1: Baby sloths only poop once a week
Can you imagine going to the toilet once every seven days? For sloths, this is a reality. Plus, they lose up to a third of their body weight every time they have a bowel movement! The difference is so dramatic that if you witnessed it, you would see the tiny one sloth’s stomach visibly shrinks.
Another thing that makes laziness babies unique is how they poop. Sloths are arboreal animals, meaning they make their homes high in the trees. Other tree species, such as monkeys, defecate from their homes above the forest floor. Sloths, however, make the descent to the forest floor before doing their business.
Although baby sloths instinctively travel to the base of the trees to be potty trained, it is a dangerous situation. Because they are slow-moving, small creatures, they are susceptible to many dangerous predators. More than half of sloth deaths from predators occur while sloths are near the forest floor.
#2: Sloth Babies Can Spend Their Whole Life in One Tree
Sloths are incredibly slow moving creatures. One of the main reasons this is true is because it takes a tremendous amount of energy for a sloth to perform even the simplest of tasks. For example, a baby sloth can take over a month to digest just a single leaf!
Since sloths already expend much of their energy traveling to the base of trees to defecate once a week, there isn’t much energy left. Traveling any distance, including between trees, would require an enormous amount of energy. This would leave little energy for daily tasks such as eating and climbing.
The first year of their lives they live in the same tree as their mothers. They cling to her fur for protection and start taking leaf samples when they are about a week old. After their first birthday, the young sloths move to a new tree on their own. However, that tree is usually only one or two trees away from the tree their mother lives in.
#3: Only the strongest twin pup survives
Every once in a while, a female sloth will give birth to a set of twin puppies. However, the mother sloth only has enough room on her chest for one baby to cling to her for protection. In addition, mother sloths have limited energy to care for and raise baby sloths.
Because of these conditions, sloth puppy twins cannot be raised at the same time. Consequently, mother sloths routinely reject the weaker of the two babies. This gives the surviving little sloth the best chance of survival.
#4: Sloth puppies are born almost fully developed
When you think of a baby, you probably think of a small helpless animal. However, when it comes to laziness, it is not. When baby sloths are born, their eyes are open and they have a full set of teeth and sharp claws. They can also instinctively climb at birth.
Perhaps a sloth pup’s most crucial job is to depend on its mother for survival. However, because female sloths are low on energy, the newborn sloths cannot rely on her to protect them in a pinch. The solution? The babies cling tightly to their mother’s chest.
Sloth puppies have extraordinary gripping power from the moment they are born. This evolution allows them to stay as safe as possible from predators, as they stay safe and snug in their mother’s chest coat.
#5: Mother Sloths Raise Their Babies Alone
If there’s a common theme in the animal kingdom, it’s this: father sloths don’t participate in raising their young. This means that for the first year of a baby sloth’s life, the mother only cares for her young.
Sloth puppies spend most of their time clinging to their mother’s chest. From this position, they can breastfeed without expending too much energy to do so. Female sloths do not store large amounts of milk to feed their young, unlike others mammals. Instead, they produce smaller amounts of milk at multiple intervals throughout the day to conserve energy.
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