Pygmy Three-toed Sloth

Names & Nicknames: Pygmy three-toed sloth, Pygmy sloth, Monk sloth, Dwarf Sloth

Size: The smallest species of sloth, these little furballs reach about 50cm in length and 3kg in weight. They are kind of like pugs, except they can climb trees. Despite their small size, they have weirdly large external ear canals. The thought is that as they evolved and their bodies shrunk, their ears didn't quite shrink as much!

Smell: A pygmy sloth, like other sloths, doesn't really produce a noticeable smell. However, due to the algae and fungi that they have growing in their fur, they tend to smell more like a plant than anything else. This plant coat acts as an effective way to stay hidden from any would-be predators trying to sniff them out.

Communication: Pygmy sloths are solitary (they prefer to hang by themselves) and as there aren't many left, they don’t get up to a lot of chit-chat. Babies communicate with squeaks, while mothers can growl and hiss to try and scare off other sloths. They may also communicate with other sloths by leaving smelly pheromones in their poo, the stinkiest of social media.

Favourite HANGout: These sloths are VERY particular about their favourite hangouts, they will only choose to chill in red mangrove forests on the tiny island of Isla Escudo de Veraguas, Panama. At around 4.3 kilometres squared, this island is significantly smaller than the floor space of the White House. And the part of it that is suitable sloth habitat is thought to be only around 1.5 kilometres squared! So the president has more room to roam around his workplace than the entire population of these sloths have.

Favourite Snack: No time wasted scrolling food delivery apps and struggling to decide what they want, their favourite snack is red mangrove leaves, right on their doorstep!

Eating Habits: Pygmy sloths spend up to 20 hours a day in the trees, luckily for them that's also where their favourite food is: tasty red mangrove leaves.

Toilet Humour: This lot eat in the trees, sleep in the trees, mate in the trees, and even give birth in the trees! However, the one thing they don't seem to do in the trees is poop. When nature is calling they will descend from the canopy to the forest floor (very slowly of course) to do their business. Luckily they can go up to 7 days before needing to do this.

Love Language: Sloths aren't the chattiest of creatures. However, when it's mating time, they love to stretch their vocal cords. Males and female sloths will find each other using loud calls, and although not much is known about pygmy sloth courtship in particular, other three-toed sloth females become three times more active, absolutely sprinting along those tree branches (okay not really they are still pretty slow..)

If you see them: Good luck spotting them! Pygmy three-toed sloths are masters of camouflage, their slow speeds mean they are hard to spot, and they even have green algae growing in their fur that helps them blend into the forest canopy. This is their own unique species of Tricophilus algae that live in their hair and begins growing during a sloth's childhood – it's likely passed down through generations, from mother to child — a family heirbloom.

Red Flags: Living and eating in one place means that unfortunately, if anything happens there you could be in serious trouble. Despite their island home technically being a protected area, there's still increasing pressure from Indigenous communities and the tourism industry to build more infrastructure on the island, which ultimately leads to fewer mangroves and room for this already-restricted species. Furthermore, these little'uns are undeniably cute, and unfortunately has made them a target of poaching for sale into the illegal pet trade or to be shown in captivity. To further add to their woes, having such a low population size can lead to something called a ‘genetic bottleneck’, where there aren't many genes in the population gene pool and this can lead to an increasing number of birth defects.

Epic Journeys: Not many mass migrations can happen when you live on a 4.3-kilometre-squared island and move at a whopping speed of 0.25 km/h. However, despite their tree-top lifestyle, pygmy sloths are actually surprisingly good swimmers!

Glow-up: Not much is known about pygmy sloth development, but based on other three-toed sloths, females likely give birth to just a single offspring while hanging upside down in a tree after around a six-month gestation period. The baby will cling to the mother's fur right away. The mother will look after the young sloth for a full year, teaching it which trees to eat and keeping it safe before eventually leaving her territory to her kid as she goes off to find a new one. Not a bad inheritance.

Facts: Pygmy three-toed sloths, like all sloths, are pretty resilient, and despite their curved claws designed especially for hanging, accidents do happen, and closely related three-toed sloths have been found to survive falls of 30 metres. Ouch.

Who are they in the friendship group: Just very happy doing their own thing, eating snacks and living life at their own pace