Page 48 - cosmos4

Sloths are known for their slowness in movement. They
spend most of their

time hanging upside

down in the trees of

the tropical rainforests of South America
and Central America. Hanging out on

trees is a great way to escape predators
and there are plenty of leaves to eat.
Sloths feed on leaves, twigs and buds.
But leaves do not contain much energy,

and that which they do have is tough to extract. Most herbivores supplement a leafy
diet with higher energy food such as fruits or seeds, while sloths depend exclusively
on leaves for food. First, they extract much energy as possible from their food. They
can spend five to seven days, or even weeks processing a meal.

The second way is to use as little energy as possible, which of course means not

moving very much. They spend most of their time eating, resting and sleeping. Even
if they do move, they’re extremely slow. On average, sloths travel 41 yards per day-
less than half the length of a football field. As they have leafy, low-calorie diets and
very slow metabolisms to match. So they move slowly and tend not to wander far
from their small home ranges.