Pale-throated three-toed sloth

Bradypus tridactylus

TAXONOMY

Bradypus tridactylus Linnaeus, 1758, Suriname.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Mouton parasseux (French Guiana); Surinamese: Driteenluiaard.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Back darker, buff to dark brown, with contrasting pale or dark grizzling. Belly paler, off-white to very deep cream. Back and rump with variably sized irregular roundels of cream or dirty orange. Facial area, a cream colored mask extending back to the ears and onto the throat. No black contrasting "mask" as in B. variegatus, though some dark patterning round eyes may occur. Adult males posses a speculum like that of B. variegatus.

DISTRIBUTION

Replaces B. variegatus in eastern Venezuela, the Guyanas, and northeastern Brazil. The two species may coexist in the lower Amazon.

HABITAT

Lowland rainforest. Less flexible than B. variegatus and rarely recorded from seasonally dry forests or highly disturbed areas.

BEHAVIOR

Active at any time during day or night. Ecology believed to be very similar to that of B. variagatus. Occurs together with Choloepus didactylus, the two-toed sloth. Resources are partitioned between the two by differing diets, activity patterns and use of different forest strata.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Believed to be similar to that of B. variegatus.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Gestation lasts 106 days. In Guyana, births occur only in the rainy season, but elsewhere, reproduction seems flexible and dependant on local conditions. This may be due to the female's ability to halt an embryo's development until conditions are favorable. Female may be sexually receptive while still nursing and can also be both nursing and pregnant at the same time. An interval of seven months between births has been reported under good conditions. Probably polygynous.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Sometimes hunted for meat.

Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth
Conservation status
Least Concern
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
Range map in blue

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 coarse 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.

Bradypus tridactylus in a Costa Rican rehabilitation center.

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.

The sloths have a gestation period of 6 months, usually giving birth to a single infant. After the birth the young animal depends on its mother to carry it on her back for up to nine months, although it is weaned on to leaves after 1 month.

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). in 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. 
• BBC Science and Nature. Wildfacts - Pale throated Three-toed Sloth. Retrieved on 2007-01-02.

External links

• University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
• BBC Science and Nature

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