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Land mammals

Brown-throated three-toed sloth

Amazing fact

Algae growing on the sloth’s fur can give it a greenish appearance.

University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
Brown-throated three-toed sloth in its habitat (illustration)

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An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

Algae growing on the sloth’s fur can give it a greenish appearance.

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THE REAL WORLD

The real Brown-throated three-toed sloth

Scientific name
Bradypus variegatus
Japanese name
ノドチャミユビナマケモノ
Group
Land mammals
Class
Mammalia
Order
Pilosa
Family
Bradypodidae
Genus
Bradypus
Facts about the real animal.

This page covers Bradypus variegatus, one of the three-toed sloth species.

01

It spends much of its life in the canopy of tropical forests in Central and South America.

02

It eats flowers and fruit as well as leaves.

How the Brown-throated three-toed sloth lives

It is active both by day and by night. It gets most of its water from the plants it eats. It sleeps with its eyes closed while hanging from a tree.

University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web

Basic data

Size
average 60 cm
Weight
3.49–5.19 kg
Lifespan
30–40 years in the wild
Active
By day and by night
Diet
Leaves, flowers and fruits of trees in the genus Cecropia
Range
South America and southern Central America
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web

Where the Brown-throated three-toed sloth has been recorded

World map with dots where the Brown-throated three-toed sloth has been recorded
Each dot marks a place with observations or specimens shared on GBIF. Some records are of animals that strayed or were brought by people, so the dots are not always where the animal lives.

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.

Names around the world

简体中文
褐喉树懒
繁體中文
褐喉樹懶
Português (Brasil)
Preguiça-comum
Bahasa Indonesia
Tauta leher-cokelat

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.

The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.

The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.

This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.

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