Rather than compile the usual list of the many books and academic papers I have consulted in writing this work, I think it will be more useful to offer a guide to the best places to look for more information about sloths.
First, the books dedicated to sloths alone:
• Function and Form in the Sloth (1971) by M. Goffart was for forty years the essential work on sloths, giving a detailed summary of all that researchers had found out about them. Dry and academic in style, but full of wondrous information.
• A Sloth in the Family (1967) by Hermann Tirler is a short but delightful account of the wonders of having a pet sloth. Pre-empting slothmania by half a century, Tirler was perhaps the first to truly appreciate the Joy of Sloth.
• Sloths: Life in the Slow Lane (2017) by Rebecca Cliffe and Suzi Eszterhas is a glorious collaboration between one of the greatest sloth researchers and one of the finest wildlife photographers to give a beautifully illustrated insight into the secret life of sloths.
• Life in the Sloth Lane: Slow Down and Smell the Hibiscus by Lucy Cooke (2018) is a magnificent collection of photographs of sloths, interspersed with inspiring quotations promoting the glories of a slothful existence.
Next, a work that devotes only one chapter to sloths but comes closer than anything that came before in capturing their special qualities:
• The Unexpected Truth About Animals (2017) by Lucy Cooke is a hilarious romp through a zoologist and film-maker’s experiences with over a dozen animals, with wondrous revelations about each of them; especially, as one would expect from the founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society, sloths.
Moving away from books, the Internet has played a great role in popularizing sloths, starting with the videos on YouTube from the Sloth Orphanage in Costa Rica which taught the world how adorable these animals can be. If you are in search of reliable, up-to-date information about sloths rather than just lovable images, I can recommend the following sites:
• www.slothville.com, which is the home page of the Sloth Appreciation Society and offers much sloth information and merchandising.
• beckycliffe.com, where the world’s foremost sloth researcher keeps us in touch with her work and her continuing passion for sloths.
The must-see films for the sloth addict are these:
• Zootopia (2016), Ice Age (2002) and its sequels, particularly Surviving Sid (2008), and The Croods (2013) are all animations with high sloth content, but Zootopia is the only one that captures their essentially adorable nature.
• Life of Pi (2012) features a real, live sloth right at the start, but it makes no further appearance. Read the book for a proper respectful treatment of sloths.