Sloths are mammals closely related to the anteater and armadillo.  They come in two family types: two-toed and three-toed.  You are more likely to spot a three-toed sloth, as the two-toed is mostly active only at night. (fun fact: Both types of sloths have 3 toes, the difference is in the amount of fingers.  The confusion came about because finger & toe are the same word, dedo, in Spanish.

Sloths move extremely slowly (their name in Spanish, perezoso, also means lazy).  The live up in trees, only coming down once per week to use the bathroom.  A sloth's diet consists mainly of leaves, but they may occasionally eat small insects and other small animals. Sloths generally switch trees every 2 days, and they do so by moving between overlapping branches.  Since sloths move so slowly, they are very vulnerable to predators (snakes, large cats, and eagles), especially when on the ground.Sloth Hanging in Tree

Since sloths mainly consume leaves, they have a very low metabolic rate and relatively low body temperature.  Sloths save energy at night by dropping their body temperature to match their environment.  Sloths sleep from 15-20 hours per day.  Their inactivity and long hair creates an ideal environment for algae to live.  This algae is also beneficial to the sloth, as the green color aids in camouflage.

Sloths are solitary, there is only one sloth per tree (unless a female is with her young).  They live between 20-30 years.  Sloth's spend most of their lives hanging upside down, for this reason many of their internal organs are arranged differently from other mammals.