A two-fi ngered sloth hangs from a tree.


Sloth Surprises Avey-Arroyo read as much as she could about


sloths. She learned that there are two main types of sloths. Buttercup is a three-fingered sloth. T ere are also two-fingered sloths. One day, Buttercup surprised Avey-Arroyo.


Buttercup was hanging from her chair, but turned her head almost all the way around without moving her body. Unlike most mammals, sloths have extra


bones in their necks. T ese bones let them turn their heads without moving their bodies. T is help sloths survive in the wild. When a sloth looks out for predators, it


doesn’t want to make a lot of noise by moving around. So instead, it only turns its head. Buttercup’s fur was another surprise for the


family. Her fur was covered in sticky, green algae. In the wild, algae grow on a sloth’s fur in thick clumps.


Curved claws help a sloth climb and cling to branches.


7


Hiding in Plain Sight Living with the Arroyos, Buttercup’s algae soon


disappeared. She had no need for it. Had she been in the wild, it would have been vital. Algae helps sloths hide. Predators have a harder time spotting them in the trees. Keeping hidden is important to sloths. T at’s


because sloths are slow. T ey are perhaps the slowest animals on Earth, so they can’t always escape predators. T eir biggest threats are jaguars and harpy eagles. A sloth’s main defense is to avoid being spotted.


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