Green algae grows upon her back.
She eats a little for a snack
And sleeps all day above the ground
Upside down, just hanging around.
At night she’ll climb with two-toed feet
While looking for some leaves to eat.
She hides and chews without a sound
Upside down, just hanging around.
Once a week, she will descend
Hoping not to meet her end.
She’ll do her business on the ground
(But not for long, no hanging around!)
When she’s done, she’ll climb a tree
Leisurely and gracefully.
I think you know where she’ll be found—
Upside down, just hanging around.
TWO-TOED SLOTHS
Found in the Amazon rainforest, nocturnal two-toed sloths can sleep up to sixteen hours a day, often while hanging upside down from a tree branch. Sloths also like to sleep curled up in a ball in the fork of a tree. At night, two-toed sloths wake and eat leaves. Because the leaves give them very little energy or muscle tone, sloths must conserve energy by moving slowly and hardly ever leaving their trees. They go to the ground just once a week to defecate. This is a risky time for them because they are too slow to flee from predators. Sloths are one of the slowest moving animals on Earth, with a top speed of about .15 miles per hour. They are so inactive that algae actually grows on their backs, providing them with a food source and camouflaging them when their fur turns green. Thanks to their extremely long claws, sloths can eat, sleep, mate, and even die while hanging upside down.