Their specialised hands and feet have long, curved claws to allow them to hang upside down from branches without effort, and are used to drag themselves along the ground, since they cannot walk.

Wild brown-throated three-toed sloths sleep on average 9.6 hours a day. Two-toed sloths are nocturnal. Three-toed sloths are mostly nocturnal but can be active in the day. They spend 90 per cent of their time motionless.

Two-toed sloths are omnivorous, with a diverse diet of insects, carrion, fruits, leaves and small lizards, ranging over up to 140 hectares (350 acres). Three-toed sloths, on the other hand, are almost entirely herbivorous (plant eaters).

Sloths descend about once every eight days to defecate on the ground. The reason and mechanism behind this behavior have long been debated among scientists.