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Sloth

Mismatched Parts: Sloths typically have small heads, tiny eyes and ears, and a small tail hidden beneath their fur. The rest of its body can be quite large and the arms and legs are powerful, which help with tree climbing. The fur comes in a variety of colors, but is usually bulky and coarse. Mites, ticks and even moths sometimes take up residence in the thick fur.

Slow as Molasses: Although the southern two-toed sloth is gray-brown in color, it may be tinged green from the algae growing on its fur. As their name suggests they are slow moving, which may make it easier for insects and plants to find a home on the sloth's body.

Life in the Trees: They spend most of their time in trees, coming to the ground only to defecate about once a week.

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MORE SLOTH

VIDEO: Ants Send Sloths Packing

INTERACTIVE: Meet the Three-Toed Sloth

SPECIES: Brown-Throated Three-Toed Sloth

SPECIES: Maned Three-Toed Sloth

DID YOU KNOW?

Slow-Acting Stomach: Sloths have very large, specialized and slow-acting stomachs to digest their main food source: leaves. It takes about a month or more for a sloth to digest a belly full of leaves.

Unusual Hair Style: Sloths spend so much time hanging upside down, with their legs above their body, that — in order to provide protection from the elements — their hair grows away from their extremities.

Giant Sloths?: Ancestors of present-day, tree-dwelling sloths included huge, ground-dwelling sloths such as Megatherium — one of the largest mammals to ever walk the earth.