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© Sedgwick County Zoo, credit: Jim Marlett

Hoffman's Sloth

Choloepus hoffmani

Physical Characteristics

  • Coat is grayish-brown with a paler face, often with a greenish cast due to algal growth during wet seasons. Legs are long and end in narrow, curved feet. The forefeet have 2 toes closely bound by skin and ending in large, hook-like claws. The hind feet have 3 toes with hook-like claws.
  • Size of average adult
    • length: 2 feet
    • weight: 12.5 pounds
  • Approximate life span is 10 - 20 years.

Diet

  • Wild: leaves, twigs and fruit (may also absorb or lick the algae that grows in their hair)

Behavior

  • Arboreal, hang upside down in trees
  • All normal activity occurs upside down
  • Movement is slow
  • Females associate in groups, while males are solitary
  • Females outnumber males 11 to 1, possibly due to unusually long gestation
  • Active only at night
  • Reproduction
    • sexual maturity: female = 3.5 years, male = 4 - 5 years
    • gestation : 11.5 months
    • the single young hooks its tiny claws into the long hair on the mother's chest, it first hangs upside down independently at 20 - 25 days

Environmental/Global

  • Habitat: Tropical forests
  • Distribution: Central and South America from Nicaragua to Peru and central Brazil
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