Popular animals like sloths are renowned for their cute features and lazy dispositions. Their maximum speed is only 1.2 miles per hour (mph), making them the slowest moving mammals on Earth.
Sloths sleep for about fifteen to eighteen hours per day. Although they tend to be solitary, they occasionally come down from the trees in search of a partner.
The tropical forest canopies of Central and South America are home to these stunning creatures. As arboreal creatures, sloths rely on canopy vines to help them move about on trees for the majority of their lives.
Slow moving creatures, sloths only waste once a week. They rarely touch the earth, and this is one of those rare occasions. A sloth’s digestion time for some meals might reach up to one month. Being folivores, nearly all of the food consumed by sloths is made up of leaves.
On Earth, sloths have existed for around 65 million years. Three-fingered and two-fingered sloths are the two varieties.
As members of the Xenarthra superorder, sloths are related to anteaters and armadillos. One of the earliest animal groupings still extant on Earth is this one. Every member of Xenarthra possesses identical and distinct lower spine articulations.
Here are animals that share similarities with sloths.
1. Anteater
Scientific name: Vermilingua
Anteaters are strange-looking creatures with very long tongues, no teeth, and characteristic long snouts. The majority of the nations in Central and South America are home to six different species of anteaters.
With a maximum height of 6–8 feet, the giant anteater is the largest species. The tiniest is a silky anteater, about a foot long and weighing less than a pound.
Animals like Sloths and anteeaters are members of the same superorder, Xenarthra, and are the closest extant relatives of each other.
Although they have somewhat different diets, anteaters and sloths both use their long, sticky tongues to help them eat. While anteaters, as their name implies, devour termites and ants, sloths primarily eat leaves.
Anteaters have extremely low body temperatures, just as sloths. Furthermore, they are both lone animals.
2. Slow Loris
Scientific name: Nycticebus
Like sloths, slow lorises are extremely sluggish creatures. They go at a little bit more speed than a sloth—roughly 1.18 miles per hour.
These adorable animals are arboreal mammals, similar to animals like sloths, and they live most of their lives in the trees of Southeast Asia’s tropical rainforests.
Slow lorises eat fruit, tree gum, and small animals in addition to leaves and twigs, unlike sloths, which are essentially vegetarian.
3. Armadillos
Scientific name: Dasypodidae
Along with sloths and anteaters, armadillos are peculiar mammals with armor plating. They belong to the superorder Xenarhtra. They dig with their long, keen claws, just like sloths do.
Both animals like sloths and armadillos love to sleep, despite the fact that armadillos can travel far faster. Like sloths, armadillos can sleep for up to 16 hours every day.
Armadillos have a cool body temperature, just as sloths and anteaters. Certain types of armadillos will curl up into a ball if they feel threatened.
4. Tarsier
Scientific name: Tarsiidae
Small and arboreal, tarsiers inhabit the Southeast Asian islands of Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Similar to the animals like sloths, tarsiers inhabit forested places and live exclusively in trees. Tarsiers usually live in ranges between three and six feet above the ground.
As the only fully carnivorous primate, tarsiers enjoy a diet of insects, frogs, birds, and reptiles, unlike sloths, which only eat leaves and twigs.
5. Lemur
Scientific name: Lemuroidea
Adorable primates, lemurs are unique to Madagascar. Lemurs come in over 100 different species.
Lemurs reside in trees, just like sloths do. Unlike many other primates, they are unable to grip with their tails. Rather, they navigate through trees with their hands and feet, much like sloths, but much more quickly.
Lemurs spend approximately 16 hours a day sleeping, just animals like sloths do.
6. Koala
Scientific name: Phascolarctos cinereus
Koalas are Australian-only marsupials that live in trees. Koalas, like sloths, live almost entirely in trees and have very long, sharp claws.
Both animals like sloths and koalas are herbivores that mostly consume leaves; eucalyptus leaves is a favorite meal of koalas.
Koalas get drowsy from eating eucalyptus leaves because they take a long time to digest and contain toxins. Compared to sloths, koalas have longer sleep cycles—up to 20 hours every day.
Since koalas are marsupials, they carry their offspring in pouches after birth, in contrast to sloths.
7. Tree Pangolin
Scientific name: Phataginus tricuspis
Scaly creatures called tree pangolins inhabit the rainforests of Central Africa. They are sometimes called scaly anteaters, even though they are unrelated to anteaters and belong to a separate family of animals.
Tree pangolins have lengthy, sticky tongues, just like sloths. While sloths chew leaves with their tongues, tree pangolins feed on termites or ants by licking them.
As semi-arboreal creatures, tree pangolins are aided in their climbing like sloths by their keen claws. Tree pangolins, in contrast to sloths, clamber up and cling to branches with their tails.
Both animals like sloths and tree pangolins are solitary creatures that only seek mates in the breeding season.
8. Tree Kangaroo
Scientific name: Dendrolagus
The lowlands and rainforests of Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea are home to tree kangaroos.
As the only genuine arboreal marsupials, they resemble sloths more than other members of the kangaroo family.
Tree kangaroos, like sloths, have adapted to live in trees and have large claws that enable them ascend through the canopy of the forest.
The loss of their forest habitat by people has put both animals like sloths and tree kangaroos in risk.
9. Howler Monkey
Scientific name: Alouatta
Howler monkeys and sloths are found in the same regions of Central and South America. Howler monkeys and sloths occasionally even coexist on the same tree.
Similar to sloths, howler monkeys spend much of their time lounging at the top of the forest canopy and seldom venture outside of it.
Howlers diet mostly leaves but also nuts, flowers, and fruits, much like sloths do.
Animals like sloths and Howler monkeys both dangle upside down from trees. Strong animals, howler monkeys can hang on a branch with only their tails.
Sea also: How Do Sloths Protect Themselves?
10. Giant Panda
Scientific name: Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Only in China can one find the giant panda, a big black and white bear. These adorable animals share the same reputation as sloths for being sluggish and lazy.
Only 38% of the daily energy used by other bears is used by pandas. They use about the same amount of energy each day as a sloth with three fingers.
Pandas are classified as carnivores by official definition, yet they often solely consume bamboo.
Unlike sloths, pandas do not reside in trees and are much larger animals. While animals like sloths average weight between 9 and 17 pounds, pandas can weigh up to 350 pounds.
11. Sloth Bear
Scientific name: Melursus ursinus
In Sri Lanka and India’s tropical and subtropical regions, sloth bears live in forests.
They are not related to sloths, despite their name, however they do have some traits in common.
Like sloths, sloth bears have lengthy claws and shaggy fur. They may hang upside down from trees, similar to the animals like sloths.
Like sloths, sloth bears have lonely being alive. During the breeding season, which runs from May through July, there is only one exception.
Despite being named after sloths, sloth bears are very fast and nimble. They have the same top speed as a human and will strike if startled or threatened.
12. Opossum
Scientific name: Didelphidae
Medium-sized pouched animals with pointed snouts are called opossums. North, South, and Central America are home to them.
Similar to sloths, opossums are mostly arboreal, meaning they live predominantly in trees. They resemble sloths in that they have long, keen claws and are skilled tree climbers.
Similar to sloths, opossums move slowly and sleep a lot of the time. Animals like Sloths sleep between 15 and 18 hours a day, whereas opossums can sleep up to 20 hours.
13. Gibbon
Scientific name: Hylobatidae
Small apes, gibbons belong to the Hylobatidae family. Southern Asia’s tropical and subtropical rainforests are home to them.
Like sloths, these incredible animals spend much of their lives in trees. The two mammals with the longest arms are sloths and gibbons.
The arms of Samang gibbons are about five feet in width and one and a half times the length of their legs. Animals like Sloths’ arms are considerably longer, measuring 1.7 times longer than their legs.
14. Owl Monkey
Scientific name: Aotus lemurinus
Also referred to as night monkeys, owl monkeys are the only genuinely nocturnal monkeys in the world. They can be found in South America’s tropical and subtropical woods.
Similar to the animals like sloths, these stunning creatures hardly ever leave the tree canopy. Like sloths, they also like sleeping and resting for about 17 hours per day.
Owing to their nocturnal habits, owl monkeys can be identified by their huge eyes.
15. Spider Monkey
Scientific name: Ateles
The South American tropical lowland jungles are home to the nimble spider monkeys.
They can move through the trees thanks to their lengthy arms, just animals like sloths. Like sloths, they are arboreal creatures that live mostly at the top of the tree canopy.
These amazing animals earned their name because they resemble big spiders and frequently hang upside down with their limbs and tails swinging.
In contrast to sloths, spider monkeys are very intelligent, gregarious, and inhabit vast communities of between 20 and 100 other monkeys.
Summary
Although animals like sloths possess some highly peculiar traits, there are numerous creatures that exhibit several commonalities with sloths.
For sloths, the closest surviving cousins are armadillos and anteeaters. Despite having different appearances, all of these animals are members of the superorder Xenarthra and have certain traits in common.
Sloths and many other tree-dwelling creatures, including owl monkeys, koalas, and opossums, are similar in appearance.
Being the slowest species on Earth, sloths primarily slumber for extended periods of time. Other species, such as giant pandas and lemurs, also sleep for extended periods of time during the day, similar to the animals like sloths.