Prior to Kristen Bell’s over the top reaction to a live a sloth, the most famous of the hairy, smelly creatures was a cartoon named Sid.
While Sid the Sloth may have been the best comedic relief in a series of films about the iced-over Earth melting, he didn’t quite capture the slow-and-steady nature of the mammal that occupies tree limbs of South America. Here a re a few facts to get the story straight:
While there is some discrepancy, it appears most sloths move between 6 and 13 feet per minute. Don’t believe us? The YouTube videos of sloths moving from tree to tree look like they’re in slow motion.
There are two types of sloth — a three-toed sloth and a two-toed sloth. They can be identified by the hooked claws on their front hands.
There have been many instances of sloths that die while hanging from a tree and remain that way after death — frozen in the exact moment they died.
One of Sid’s more realistic features was the green tint in his fur. Sloths have a symbiotic relationship with green algae. The algae grow in the coarse dirty hairs of a sloth, and provide a greenish camouflage for the sloth.
Sloths only reproduce once a year and only get together to procreate. The rest of the time, sloths are independent mammals.
Their slow-and-steady, low-risk lifestyle mean a sloth can live up to 40 years.
It is unclear why Kristen Bell is so attached to sloths, but when her fiancé surprised her with a visit from one on her birthday she broke down in tears. According to Bell during her appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, she had been waiting her whole life to interact with a sloth.
*All facts according to the World Animal Foundation and Animal Planet.
-Kaitlyn Krasselt