May 9, 2011

Another bad hair day


I thought I knew a lot about sloths. I used to work with two-toed sloths as a zookeeper. I know that the closest relatives of sloths are the apparently very different anteaters and armadillos, and that together they all make up an order called xenarthra. Hey, I even wrote a mystery with a sloth in the title, a sloth on the cover, and where important plot-related peril happens to sloths.

And yet somehow I only recently stumbled upon this species, the maned sloth. It's reportedly the rarest species, so I guess that's how I missed it.

Sloths are definitely not conventionally attractive, but I think they're the cutest things ever - especially the babies. I mean, if this doesn't prove that the world needs the word "ugdorable" I don't know what does:


That maned sloth, though...

But hey, maybe all it needs is a good makeover. It doesn't look too bad in this artist's rendering:

You can have some ugly animal craft fun by downloading that cutout-and-assemble maned sloth at the Yamaha website (I am not making that up).

You can also read more about this sloth and other xenarthans at - where else - xenarthrans.org, the website of the conservationists who specialize in them. And see more pictures, including some very clear views of that unfortunate hairstyle, at the website of photographer Kevin Schafer.

-Slothfully,
Wombat (No Relation)

Two-toed sloth baby by Flickr user justonlysteve.

5 comments:

Albertonykus said...

There's also an excellent article on interesting sloth facts on Tet Zoo: http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/01/ten_things_you_didnt_know_abou.php And one on the infamous "toilet sloths": http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2010/04/two-toed_toilet_sloths.php

wombat said...

Oh yes, I have written about the toilet sloths elsewhere -
http://animalsbehavingbadly.blogspot.com/2010/08/go-ahead-climb-into-sewer-and-break-my.html
Don't remind me!

Anonymous said...

Looks more like a manged sloth.

Adorably Dead said...

Awwww, little fuzzy baby! And sloths kind of remind me of muppets.

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