What type of animal are sloths???

Question

My friend keeps saying that they are monkeys...but in the same breath he also spelled gerbil "jerbil" and sloth "slot"......he's convinced....and its just so funny...i wanted to prove him wrong...

Answer 1

Slowest Moving Mammal in the World

Closely related to armadillos and anteaters, sloths originated in South America" a home to a unique zoo of hoofed mammals, edentates, marsupials, and more giant flightless birds (Phorusrachids)." There were at one time over 35 types of sloths, ranging from Antartica up through Central America. Now there are only two with five species living in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America. Slowest Moving Mammal in the World

Closely related to armadillos and anteaters, sloths originated in South America in the Late Eocene period, the "dawn of recent life," when South America became "became home to a unique zoo of hoofed mammals, edentates, marsupials, and more giant flightless birds (Phorusrachids)." There were at one time over 35 types of sloths, ranging from Antartica up through Central America. Now there are only two with five species living in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America. They carry out most of their activities hanging upside down in trees. They eat, sleep, mate, give birth, and tend their young suspended over the ground. It takes them about two and half years to grow to full size, between one and a half and two and a half feet. (Their ancestor, the extinct Giant Sloth, grew to the size of an elephant.) They may live for forty years.
Due to this “upside down” life, their internal organs are in different positions.

Sloths are very slow on the ground, moving only about 53 feet per hour. Faster in the trees, they can move about 480 feet/hour, and in cases of emergency have been tracked moving at 900 feet/hour.

Sloths prefer a slow paced way of life. They spend most of the day resting and sleeping. At night, they eat, descend to the ground only to move to another location or to defecate, usually once weekly.

Sloths are herbivores and eat tree leaves, shoots and some fruit. The two-toed species also eat twigs, fruits, and small prey. Their digestive systems are very slow, due to their leisurely metabolic systems, allowing them to survive on little food intake. They get their water from dewdrops or the juice in the leaves. This low rate of metabolism makes it hard for them to fight off illness or colder climates.

They have long, curved claws which allow them to grip a tree branch and hang on even while sleeping. They use their lips, which are very hard, to crop the leaves. Continually growing and self-sharpening, their teeth grind their food. They may use their teeth to nip at a predator.

Sloths use their long, thick gray or brown hair, usually covered with blue-green algae during the rainy season, as protective coloration. Their hair covers them from stomach to back, falling over them as they hang suspended.

Predators include large snakes, harpy and other birds, jaguars and ocelots.

Sloths have short flat heads, short snouts and tiny ears. See these [link url=http://www.sloths.org/] photos[/links]. Besides the number of forefeet toes, there are these differences between two-toed and three-toed sloths:


Two-toed sloths have six or seven vertebra
Two-toed sloths have no tails. Their front and back legs are about the same size
Two-toed sloths has a short neck, large eyes and moves more often between trees
Two-toed sloths aren’t easy going. They use their self-sharpening canine teeth to bite.

Three-toed sloths have nine vertebra
Three-toed sloths have a small tail. Their front legs are longer than the rear ones
Three-toed sloths have a short neck and small eyes
Three-toed sloths have a mild temperament, which makes them easier to capture for pets. They are now on the endangered species list.
With the steady encroachment by man and machine into the rain forests of South America, the sloths, like many other tropical rain forest creatures, are in danger.
They dont make good for eating!!!!
They are not monkeys but do resemble in looks
heres to your sloths...........

Answer 2

Sloths are medium-sized mammals that live in South America and Central America belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, part of the order Pilosa. Most scientists call these two families the Folivora suborder, while some call it Phyllophaga.

Not monkeys.

A monkey is a member of either of two of the three groupings of simian primates. These three groupings are the New World monkeys, the Old World monkeys, and the apes. The New World monkeys are classified within the parvorder Platyrrhini, whereas the Old World monkeys (superfamily Cercopithecoidea) form part of the parvorder Catarrhini, which also includes the apes.

Answer 3

Sloths are medium-sized mammals that live in South America and Central America belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, part of the order Pilosa. Most scientists call these two families the Folivora suborder, while some call it Phyllophaga.

Sloths are omnivores, eating mainly vegetation. Sloths may also eat insects and small lizards and carrion. However, a sloth's main diet consists of mostly buds, tender shoots, and leaves.

Sloths have made extraordinary adaptations to an arboreal browsing lifestyle. Leaves, their main food source, provide very little energy or nutrition and do not digest easily: sloths have very large, specialized, slow-acting stomachs with multiple compartments in which symbiotic bacteria break down the tough leaves.

As much as two-thirds of a well-fed sloth's body-weight consists of the contents of its stomach, and the digestive process can take as long as a month or more to complete. Even so, leaves provide little energy, and sloths deal with this by a range of economy measures: they have very low metabolic rates (less than half of that expected for a creature of their size), and maintain low body temperatures when active (30 to 34 degrees Celsius or 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit), and still lower temperatures when resting. Sloths mainly live in Cecropia trees.

Answer 4

The sloth is a slow-moving mammal that lives in trees. Sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside-down from tree branches; they eat, sleep, mate, and give birth upside-down in the trees. They hold onto tree branches with strong, curved claws that are on each of their four feet.

Male sloths are solitary, shy animals. Females sometimes congregate together. Sloths are nocturnal; they are most active at night and sleep all day.

Answer 5

Sloths are NOT monkeys.....they are in their own order (Pilosa) and have 2 families (Megalonychidea, or two-toed sloths; and Bradypodidae, or three-toed).

Monkeys are in the order Primates (which includes us humans). There are two sub-orders and numerous families.

Answer 6

primitive mammals of south america, slow moving, arboreal,hangs upside down from tree branches.there are two types of sloths three toed sloth and two toed sloths

Answer 7

Their closest relatives are anteaters. A bit more distant are the armadillos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilosa

Answer 8

mamals.

no they are not monkeys...

Answer 9

PIG