Hoffmann's Two-Toed Sloth: Facts, Diet and Habitat

What does Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth look like?

Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth looks like a rounded bundle of long, coarse hair with a small face poking out. The fur is tan to light brown, usually paler on the face, and often has a greenish tint from algae living in the hairs. The head is round, with a naked, rather pig-like snout, small ears hidden in fur and dark, beady eyes.

The front limbs end in two long, curved claws, and the back limbs in three. The claws work like hooks, so a sloth can hang from a branch with very little muscular effort. The arms are slightly longer than the legs.

The fur is unusual. Instead of parting along the back, as in most mammals, it parts along the belly and runs toward the back. When the sloth hangs upside down, rain runs off it like water off a thatched roof.

Unlike three-toed sloths, this species has no dark eye mask and no visible tail, and males lack the bright shoulder patch of male three-toed sloths. For a full side-by-side guide, see two-toed vs three-toed sloth.

How big is a Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth?

This is one of the larger living sloths, about the size of a small dog.

Females are, on average, a little larger than males, but there is a lot of overlap. A sloth’s weight changes from day to day because its stomach holds a large amount of slowly fermenting leaves, and it stores droppings for several days between trips to the ground.

Habitat and range

Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth lives in two separate areas, divided by the Andes mountains. The northern population stretches from eastern Honduras and Nicaragua through Costa Rica and Panama to Colombia, westernmost Venezuela and western Ecuador. The southern population lives east of the Andes in Peru, western Brazil and northern Bolivia. Genetic studies suggest the two groups have been apart for millions of years.

It lives in many kinds of forest: lowland rainforest, cloud forest, dry forest and older secondary forest, from sea level up to about 3,300 m (10,800 ft). It also uses wooded farmland, such as shade-grown cacao plantations, but avoids open pastures. Sloths need connected treetops, because moving on the ground is slow and risky.

An individual often has a small home range of a few hectares and may spend much of its life moving between a few dozen favorite trees.

What does Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth eat?

Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth is mainly a plant-eater. Most of its diet is leaves, especially young, tender ones, along with buds, shoots, twigs, flowers and fruit. Compared with three-toed sloths, two-toed sloths eat a broader range of plants and more fruit. There are also scattered reports of two-toed sloths eating insects or other small animal food, but these are a minor part of the diet at most.

Sloths have no front incisors. They pull leaves off with their tough lips and grind them with peg-like teeth that keep growing throughout life and have no enamel. At the front of the mouth is a pair of sharp, canine-like teeth used in defense.

Digestion is slow. A large, many-chambered stomach holds bacteria that break down tough plant fibers by fermentation, and food may take days to weeks to pass through. Two-toed sloths have also been seen visiting mineral licks. The details are in what do sloths eat?.

Behavior: a slow, quiet life in the trees

Two-toed sloths live alone, apart from mothers with young. They spend most of the day asleep or resting, often curled up in a tangle of vines, and become active after dark. Studies on Barro Colorado Island in Panama found Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths there were almost entirely nocturnal, moving and feeding for several hours each night.

They move very slowly, typically about 0.14 m per second, or roughly 0.5 km/h (0.3 mph). This slowness is not laziness but energy saving: sloths have about half the metabolic rate expected for a mammal of their size, and their body temperature drifts between about 30 and 34 °C (86–93 °F) with the weather. Read more in why are sloths so slow?.

About once every few days to a week, a sloth climbs down to the ground to urinate and defecate, usually at the base of a tree. It also comes down to cross gaps between trees. Despite their slowness on land, sloths are capable swimmers.

Sloths have poor eyesight and rely largely on smell and touch. Adults are generally quiet, but they can hiss when disturbed, and young sloths bleat loudly when separated from their mothers.

Reproduction and baby sloths

Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths can mate at many times of year. Males leave scent marks on branches, and a female may call to attract males. If two males arrive, they may hang from a branch and swipe at each other until one gives up.

Pregnancy lasts about 11.5 months, one of the longest of any mammal of this size. A single baby is born, weighing about 340–450 g (12–16 oz), with claws already formed. It clings to its mother’s belly and starts tasting leaves within a few weeks, learning from her which trees to feed on.

The mother carries her young for about 6 to 9 months, after which it becomes independent, often staying in part of her home range. Females can breed at about 3 years old and males at about 4 to 5 years.

How long do two-toed sloths live?

The lifespan of wild Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths is not well known, because few wild sloths have been followed for their whole lives. In zoos, two-toed sloths commonly reach 20 to 30 years, and Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths have been reported living to about 43 years. See how long do sloths live? for more on sloth lifespans.

A walking ecosystem: algae, moths and fungi

A sloth’s coat is home to a small community of living things. The outer hairs have cracks and grooves that soak up water, and green algae grow in them, especially in the rainy season. That tint helps the sloth blend into the canopy.

The fur also hosts beetles, mites and moths. Sloth moths are best known from three-toed sloths, which carry far more of them, but two-toed sloths have their own smaller fur fauna. Scientists have also found many kinds of fungi and bacteria in sloth hair, some of which produce chemicals that are now being studied for possible medical uses.

Myths and facts

• Myth: sloths sleep 15 to 20 hours a day. Fact: that figure comes mostly from captive animals. Wild sloths studied with sensors slept closer to 9 or 10 hours; see how long do sloths sleep?.
• Myth: two-toed sloths have two toes on every foot. Fact: they have two fingers on the front feet and three toes on the back feet.
• Myth: sloths are lazy. Fact: their slowness is an efficient way to live on a low-energy diet of leaves while staying hidden from predators.
• Myth: sloths are monkeys or bears. Fact: they are xenarthrans, related to anteaters and armadillos, such as the nine-banded armadillo.

Predators and threats

Natural predators include jaguars, ocelots, margays and other wild cats, large snakes such as boas, and the harpy eagle, which snatches sloths from the canopy. A sloth’s main defense is to stay hidden: it barely moves, and its algae-tinted fur blends into the leaves. If attacked, a two-toed sloth can bite and slash with its claws, and it can survive wounds that would kill many other mammals of its size.

Human-related threats include:

• Deforestation that breaks up the canopy and forces sloths to cross open ground.
• Power lines and roads, which electrocute or kill many sloths in Costa Rica and other countries.
• Dogs, which attack sloths on the ground near towns.
• Illegal capture of young sloths for the pet trade or for tourist photos.

Conservation status and people

The IUCN Red List classes Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth as Least Concern, because it has a wide range and occurs in many protected areas. Costa Rica lists it on CITES Appendix III to help control trade. Local sloth populations still decline where forests are cleared. Rescue centers, insulated power lines, canopy bridges and forest corridors help sloths in fast-growing tourist areas.

Two-toed sloths are among the most popular animals in zoos in Europe and North America, and many zoo sloths are either Hoffmann’s or Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths. They do well in captivity, unlike three-toed sloths, which are very hard to keep because of their specialized diet.

In the wild, sloths are a favorite sight for visitors to Costa Rica and Panama. Wildlife experts urge people to watch them without touching, holding or taking selfies with them, because handling causes stress and fuels the illegal trade.