Why are sloths slow?

THESE adorable but funny-looking creatures have made the tropical jungles of Central and South America their home.

Sloths live quite solitary lives and spend most of their days travelling tree to tree in search of food and shelter.

Sloths are renowned for being slow.

In fact, these adorable animals on average travel 41 yards per day, which is less than half the length of a football field, according to WWF.

This is because they have an extremely low metabolic rate, which means they move at a sluggish pace.

What do sloths eat?

When sloths aren't busy looking for shelter, they love to dig into a nutritional meal.

They like eating leaves, twigs and buds.

Sloths have no front teeth so they trim down leaves by smacking their lips firm together.

Given their low metabolic rate, they can survive on relatively little food.

What might take other animals a matter of hours to digest takes sloths days.

They also spend 15 hours of the day snoozing.

They have a low body temperature of about 86°F-93°F and move in and out of shade to regulate their temperature.

These long-armed creatures are also excellent swimmers and are known to occasionally drop from a treetop into water for a paddle.

There are two types of sloths – two-toed and three-toed – and six species.

According to Natience, sloths aren't dangerous to humans as long as they're left in their natural habitat.

If threatened, they will lash out with their long claws and can cause serious damage.

They can also bite and are known to carry harmful diseases to humans.

They are also known to carry mosquitos in their fur, which can be passed on to humans.

Sloths spend the majority of their time high up in canopy and are mostly found in Central and South America.

They come down only one time per week to relieve themselves, according to WWF.

Trees and canopy provide natural protection from predators like jaguars and eagles.

Sadly, their habitats are under threat from deforestation in South American countries like Brazil.