1. Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth
© Lee Dingain

2. Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth
Scientific name is Bradypus variegatus
The Brown-throated Three-toed sloth can be found throughout southern Central America into much of South America.
This sloth did occur in Argentina, but is now considered extinct there.
Ask the students to find out about the other species of sloth. What are they called and where are they found.
See more images of this sloth on ARKive
Click here to find out which countries this sloth is found in
In these countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela.

3. What habitat do they live in?
What habitat do you think they live in? Click here to find out.
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloths live in tropical forests.
They are very fond of these types of trees.
© Kirsty Burgess/WLT

4. Why are they threatened?
All tropical forest living mammals are vulnerable to habitat destruction.
One of the places this animal lives is called the Atlantic Rainforest. This is further south than the Amazon in Brazil and stretches into Paraguay and Argentina, this habitat is very endangered.
Can you guess the name of the rainforest in Brazil where the Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth lives? Click here to find out
Compare the Atlantic rainforest with the Amazon rainforest; find the two on a map. It is in a different part of Brazil and many people don’t even know it exists.
Sloths are hunted by people in much of South America.
Do the students understand the term habitat destruction? It refers to when the animal homes are destroyed
The Atlantic rainforest has been continually degraded since the Portuguese arrived in the 1500s, although most of the destruction has occurred in the 20th Century. It has been cleared so that crops can be grown, cattle can be grazed and homes can be built.
The threats to rainforest are covered in more detail on the CD.
Here a large area of rainforest has been cleared so that a holiday home can be built
© Kelly Jacobs/WLT

5. Natural hunters of the sloth
1) Harpy Eagles can pluck sloths right out of the tree
Click here to see a picture of a Harpy Eagle
Click here to see a picture of a Jaguar
© Kirsty Burgess/WLT
2) Jaguars can catch sloths when they come down to the ground
© Silvia Centron

6. How do they communicate?
Sloths live alone (they are solitary) and do not need to communicate with other sloths very often.
Sloths are very slow moving, quiet, and solitary animals – this all makes them quite hard to spot in the rainforest.
© Alan Martin
Baby sloths may hiss if they are having difficulty climbing
Females may make a high pitched cry to attract a mate
Male sloths may make noises if they fight
Can you guess what noises a sloth might use to communicate? Click here to find out

7. What do they eat? Brown-throated Three-toed Sloths are herbivores.
What do you think this means that they eat in the rainforest? Click here to find out
They eat tree leaves, flowers, shoots and some fruit.
© Alan Martin

8. How long do they live? How big are they?
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloths live about 20 years or more in the wild.
How big are they?
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloths are about the size of a cat, 40 – 80 cm long.
© Lee Dingain

9. What do they look like?
The three long curved claws on the front feet of Brown-throated Three-toed sloths are very strong and support them hanging upside down, or sitting, high up in trees.
They look as though they are always smiling.
They have longer arms than legs.
They have long, coarse grey-brown hair.
They have short stubby tails.
© Lee Dingain

10. Tell me about their babies:
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloths give birth to one baby a year.
The baby will be carried about on its mother’s stomach for about 6 or 9 months.
© Alan Martin

11. Interesting facts:
Sloths will move in to a patch of sunlight to warm up, and move out of sunlight to cool down.
A simple plant called Algae, grows on the fur of the Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth. This can make the sloth look green, and camouflages it among the leaves of a tree.
Use this opportunity to talk about the camouflage of animals and plants.
Some moths lay their eggs in the fur of the sloth, and can be found there.
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloths cannot support their body weight when they climb out of the tree, but they swim quite well.
© Lee Dingain

12. A story from the wild:
One of the conservation organisations working to save the Atlantic rainforest in Brazil is called REGUA. The Director of REGUA is called Nicholas.
One day Nicholas left the forest to go into the town. When he was in the town he saw a Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth on the road.
Because sloths cannot walk they drag themselves along very slowly and this sloth was in danger of getting run over.
Why do you think the sloth was in danger here? Click to find out
© Alan Martin
Nicholas rescued the sloth and took it to the forest reserve where he works.
What do you think Nicholas did? Click here to find out
This story, and the pictures, relate to a real incident at REGUA in 2009.
The sloth was found on a dirt road.
REGUA is a project partner of the World Land Trust.
This is a picture of the sloth being released from a sack next to a tree. The sloth climbed the tree and by the next day it had disappeared into the forest.
Click here to see a picture of what happened next
© Alan Martin

13. © Alan Martin
If you choose the Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth as your fundraising focus, your donation will go towards World Land Trust projects for the conservation of wildlife habitat in the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil.