15 Cute Sloth Pictures That Will Make You Squel With Delight

Sloths are some of the most interesting species living in the tropics. These animals mainly live in trees and are known for moving at a very slow and languid pace. In fact, their speed (or lack thereof) earned them their name! They travel only about 41 meters a day and have an extremely slow metabolic rate. However, that does not mean sloths are lazy bums. They’re actually some of the cleanest creatures around.

They can starve to death on a full stomach. Unlike most mammals, sloths have sacrificed the ability to control their body temperature in order to save energy. Instead they are completely reliant on the environmental conditions, and their core temperature can fluctuate over 10°C during the course of a single day. If they get too cold, the special microbes that live in their stomachs can die, and the sloth can no longer digest the leaves that it eats.