Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth

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iPale-throated Three-toed Sloth

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Superorder:	Xenarthra
Order:	Pilosa
Suborder:	Folivora
Family:	Bradypodidae
Genus:	Bradypus
Species:	B. tridactylus

Binomial name

Bradypus tridactylus
Linnaeus, 1758

The Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus tridactylus) is a three-toed sloth that inhabits tropical rainforests from southern Central America to north-eastern Argentina. This sloth lives high in the canopy.

It has almost no tail or external ears, and its head is slightly rounded with a blunt nose. The body is covered with long and course hair. Very small green algae sometimes live mutualistically in the pits of the hair, which gives the sloth an overall greenish appearance that serves as camouflage. Male sloths have a bright yellow or orange patch on the back. The females have two mammae in the chest region. The three-toed sloth is armed with long, compressed, arched, hollowed claws, of which the middle claw is the largest.

Bradypus tridactylus grows to a length of between 1.5 and 2.5 ft. The limbs are long and weak, with anterior extremities that are nearly double the length of the posterior. The three-toed sloth has 9 neck vertebrae, giving it extreme flexibility.

The three-toed sloth can hang so securely with its hooklike claws that it even falls asleep in this position. A sloth may even stay suspended in the trees for some time after it dies.

[edit] References

Chiarello & members of the Edentate Specialist Group (2006). Bradypus tridactylus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern
Gardner, Alfred (November 16, 2005). Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 100. ISBN 0-801-88221-4.