Now, you may have already known that sloths were the slowest mammals in the world. It is, after all, one of their most well-known personality traits. What you may not know, though, is why they are so slow. Sloths have very weak hind legs - so weak that they can hardly support themselves on them. This makes walking very difficult. This is also why sloths spend so much time in trees; they can actually move faster in the trees than they can on the ground! And believe it or not, sloths are pretty fast swimmers, too!

There is more to sloths than just being slow and lazy, though! There are two types of sloth: two-toed and three-toed. As you can probably guess, the former has two toes on each of its hands and feet, while the latter has three. But wait… how are sloths such good climbers with so few toes?? Sloths have incredibly strong grips; so strong that they can actually retain their grip on a tree branch after they die. Wow! Imagine trying to climb from branch to branch using only two of your fingers on each hand. Pretty tough, eh? Sloths also have an extra vertebrae in their neck which enables them to turn their heads an incredible 270 degrees! They are pretty solitary animals and really only gather with other sloths to mate, and once they do, their offspring will live for about 40 years.