I visited real sloths at the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica just so that I could finally have some answers…
Summer Anne Burton
A: Sloths have no real natural body odor, which helps hide and protect them from potential predators. As a result, their natural smell is a projection of whatever you're feeling at the moment you encounter one. Given that you're meeting a sloth, that feeling is generally joy, excitement, warmth, and love. What do those feelings smell like, you ask? Like laundry, watermelon rind, the top of a baby's head, boiling water, and fresh cut grass all mixed together.
A: Two-fingered sloths have two fingers, and three-fingered sloths have three fingers. Some people think their fingers are toes or claws, but they're actually finger bones. The other differences include:
- three-fingered sloths are pickier eaters, two-fingered sloths will eat anything.
- three-fingered sloths always look like they're happy, two-fingered sloths also always look happy but, like, slightly less so, like maybe there's something bothering them in the back of their minds.
- three-fingered sloths prefer Paul, while two-fingered sloths prefer John.
A: Sloths have low metabolisms, so they have to move slowly in order to conserve energy. However, they aren't aimless or "lazy" and they actually move around quite a lot — just very, very slowly. Every move a sloth makes is with purpose, which is more than most of us can say about 90% of the time.
