International Sloth Day 2018


October 20th celebrates International Sloth Day, opens a new window. There are many ways to participate in International Sloth Day (or ISD for short). You can move very slowly like a sloth and take hours to get out of bed in the morning, eat salad for most of the day (having a protein-lacking diet will certainly help you move slow like a sloth 😉 ), climb a tree, or just relax and take it easy!

While you take it easy, watch these cute baby sloths learn to climb. It will make you smile!

Sloths Need Your Help

The most important way you can participate is to become aware! The main purpose of ISD is to spread awareness to ensuring the protection of sloths across the globe. It's unfortunate, but due to deforestation in tropical rain forests, sloths are in jeopardy of losing their shelter and sources of food.

Here are some organizations that provide information on how you can help.

Fun Facts About Sloths

  • Sloth stomachs have four compartments and can take up to a month to digest a meal
  • Sloths love to eat hibiscus flowers (it's like chocolate to them)
  • They sleep about 15 hours a day
  • Sloths can turn their head almost 360 degrees
  • They go to the "restroom" only once a week!
  • Sloths are much faster at swimming than climbing
  • Sloths grow algae on their fur often turning them green
  • There fur is home to bugs and insects
  • They can live up to 40 years old

Learn About Sloths at the Library 

Interested in learning more about sloths? The library has plenty of "slothy" materials in our collection. Here are some I recommend.

Sloths

A Sloth Named Velcro

How Do Sloths Poop?

Hanging With the Sloth

These two are just for fun!

A Sloth's Guide to Mindfulness

Zootopia

How do you plan on celebrating International Sloth Day? Let us know below!