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Linnaeus's two-toed sloth ( Choloepus didactylus), also known as the southern two-toed sloth, unau, or Linne's two-toed sloth is a species of sloth from South America, found in Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil north of the Amazon River. There is now evidence suggesting the species' range expands into Bolivia. It's the largest extant sloth species.
Modern sloths are divided into two families based on the number of toes on their front feet, Choloepodidae and Bradypodidae. Linnaeus's two-toed sloth and Hoffmann's two-toed sloth ( Choloepus hoffmanni) belong to the family Choloepodidae, which included extinct ground sloths.
The species has relatively few teeth; it has four to five sets including canine tooth and lacks . Molars are indistinguishable from premolars. The teeth are rootless and lack Tooth enamel, consisting only of two layers ever-growing dentin. Supernumerary teeth have occasionally been observed, but this has been reported in almost all mammalian orders.
Two-toed sloths live in ever-wet tropical rainforests that are hot and humid. They tend to live in areas where there is a lot of vine growth so they can easily travel from tree to tree in the canopies of the forests. They mainly eat leaves, but there is lacking data on the extent of their diet due to their nocturnal lifestyle and camouflage.
C. didactylus, similar to other sloth species, have a low rate of metabolism, food intake, and defecation, despite their relatively large body mass and their high volumes of methane production. They retain their digested material for long periods of time, due to a combination of their low defecation rates and large digestive systems. This long digestion period appears to cause the sloths' high volumes of methane production, more than most other, similar herbivores. These high methane levels may also be the result of high formate levels in their digested material.
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Ecology
C. didactylus is a solitary, nocturnality and arboreal animal, found in . The two-toed sloth falls prey to Felidae such as the ocelot and jaguar as well as large birds of prey such as the Harpy Eagle and Crested Eagle. Predation mainly occurs when the sloth descends to the ground in order to defecate or change trees. Anacondas have also been known to hunt sloths. It is able to swim, making it possible to cross rivers and creeks, but maybe also making it more available to a predator like an anaconda.
See also
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