Nashville Zoo is excited to announce the addition of two-toed sloths to its animal collection. Guests can see the mother, Edith, and her son, Emmett, in the Aviary inside Unseen New World.
“We’re happy to add this mom and youngster duo to the Unseen New World Aviary,” said Joe deGraauw, the Zoo’s Avian Curator. “The temperature and humidity requirements for this species makes them a perfect fit in the Aviary which also offers a naturalistic canopy and vine thoroughfare where visitors can easily observe the sloths. They will represent a mammal species in the aviary that already supports over 20 birds and reptiles.”
Two- toed sloths are known as the world’s slowest mammal and spend most of their lives in the treetops of Central and South America. They thrive in humid, warm and well-established tropical and cloud forests. While all sloths have three claws on their hind limbs, two-toed sloths are distinguished from the three-toed sloth by the number of fingers on their hands. Their elongated limbs, long claws and reinforced lumbar vertebrae are adaptations making the upside-down hanging lifestyle easy for this species.