The
sloth is an oddball in a forest full of oddities. While other animals
rely on speed, agility and coloration to avoid hungry predators, sloths
just hang around. They're so slow moving that both plants (fungi and algae)
and animals (beetles, moths and other insects) seem to mistake them for
stationary objects, taking up residence in their hairy coats. The resident
plants give the otherwise gray sloth a green coating which helps, along
with its nearly imperceptible movements, to make it difficult
for predators to locate amidst the verdant foliage of the canopy, which
it likes to eat. Monkey-like in its arboreal habit, the sloth's closest
cousins, the armadillo and anteater, spend much more of their time on the ground. While the sloth might
care to pay a visit to its family on the forest floor, it would find the
trip quite tumblesome: designed exclusively for hanging upside down, the
sloth's legs and arms cannot handle the feat of walking.