speach

Hi my name is Donovan and today I am going to tell you about sloths! Did you know scientists found out that sloths were the size of elephants? I find sloths an interesting topic so that is why I am going to tell you about them!!!!

First I’m going to tell you about sloths and what they are. A sloth is a cute and cuddly medium sized mammal. There are two types of sloths, there is the two toed sloth and the three toed sloth. Sloths have two cousins, the anteater and the armadillo. They are related to the anteater because the two toed sloth sometimes eats ants and they are related to the armadillo by their back bone. The sloths back bone provides strength and the same for the armadillo. All sloths have three toes but the two toed sloth only has 2 fingers!!!!

Are you wondering what a sloth looks like, well, I am going to tell you!!!!!!! Sloths have a brown and black nose and a white and brown face like a panda. The sloth has very long and sharp claws to help them climb trees aswell as getting food. Sloths aren’t very big, they are only about the size of a small dog. They have short flat heads. They have grayish brown hair but sometimes it looks grey green. This is because they have green algae on their coats which helps them camouflage.

Now I’m going to tell you about where sloths live.

Sloths are found in small areas of tropical rainforests along the coast of eastern Brazil. This habitat is disappearing because the rainforest is being cut down to create plantations, have space for livestock and the production of lumber and coal. Sloths have very long and sharp claws that they use to hold onto tree branches. The claws are their only natural defence against preditors. Sloths are also found on one small island off the coast of Panama, they live only in the mangrove forests surrounding the island, not the island itself.

Now I’m going to tell you about the foods that sloths eat. Sloths mainly eat tree buds, new shoots, fruits and leaves. Some two toed sloths eat insects, small reptiles, ants and birds. Sloths eat from 50 or more types of trees in the tropical rainforests.

Did you know sloths have a four part stomach that very slowly digests the tough leaves they eat, it can sometimes take up to a month for them to digest a meal. Digesting this diet means a sloth has very little energy left to move around making it one of the slowest moving animals in the world!

Now I’m going to share some interesting facts about sloths with you. Two toed sloths are nocturnal, being most active at night. Three toed sloths are diurnal which means they are most active during the day. Did you know that sloths only go to the toilet once a week? When they go to the toilet there is a chance that they could get killed by their preditors which are jaguars, the harpy eagle and snakes. It was thought that sloths slept for 15 to 20 hours a day. However, its now believed that they only  sleep around 10 hours a day. Sloths can move along the ground at just 2m  per minute! In the trees they are slightly quicker at 3m  per minute.

Well there you have it, if you did not know too much about sloths, I hope you learned something today. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed my speech.