International Sloth Day: Top ten facts about the animal – not the deadly sin of laziness
TODAY is International Sloth Day – referring to the animal not the deadly sin of laziness – which has been celebrated on October 20 since 2010.
It's International Sloth Day
1. All sloths have three toes on each of their hind legs. Two-toed sloths and three-toed sloths differ in the number of fingers on their front limbs.
2. Until 10,000 years ago, South America had a big population of giant sloths the size of elephants.
3. The giant sloth Megalonyx jeffersonii is named after Thomas Jefferson, who delivered a paper on his study of its fossil bones in 1797.
4. Jefferson thus became the only US President to have a sloth named after him.
ADORABLE sloth bear cub turn one at rescue care facility
5. Three-toed sloths are called Bradypus (slowfooted), two-toed are Choloepus (lame-footed).
6. Sloths generally come down from their trees only once a week or so to poo and pee.
7. “I have more in common with a three-toed sloth or a one-eyed pterodactyl or Kalamata olive than I have with Winston Churchill,” (Boris Johnson).
A brown-throated sloth
8. The top speed of a sloth on the ground is only about 13ft per minute but they swim much faster.
9. Sloths in the wild sleep for about nine hours a day but they rest for much of the rest of the time.
10. When London Zoo sloth Marilyn had a baby in 2015, his sharp claws led to him being called Edward, after film character Edward Scissorhands