DON鈥橳 be alarmed. This creature is the size of a small house cat, with a distaste for haste. And those Wolverine-like claws are hangers, not daggers.
The pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus) exists solely on a single island, Escudo de Veraguas, off the coast of Panama. It is the only sloth species on the island, which was separated from the mainland by rising sea levels 9000 years ago. Since then, B. pygmaeus has been shrinking, and is now 40 per cent lighter than its mainland sibling, the brown-throated three-toed sloth (B. variegatus). It weighs in at about 3 kilograms.
Advertisement
Bigger bodies give an edge against predators, but require more energy to maintain. B. pygmaeus, cut off from mainland predators, is not under that evolutionary pressure.
The fur of the pygmy sloth plays host to a single species of algae, which the animals may nibble to supplement their diet. The algae also gives the sloths a greenish hue.
Escudo de Veraguas has an area of 430 hectares, with 10 hectares of mangroves. This is where B. pygmaeus prefers to hang out, although it also lives in the mixed tropical forest of the island鈥檚 interior. Estimates of this tree-dweller鈥檚 numbers vary widely, from fewer than 100 to several thousand. Regardless, the logging of mangroves for fuel and to maintain wooden houses on the island means this critically endangered 鈥� and actually quite adorable 鈥� species may be diminishing in number as well as size.
Photographer
Suzi Eszterhas, Minden Pictures
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淪lo-mo Wolverine鈥�
