Juno

每年的10月20日是一个有趣的日子——国际树懒日。树懒是树栖动物，它们动作迟缓，常用爪倒挂在树枝上数小时不移动。树懒的移动速度是甫乳动物中最慢的，比我们所知的乌龟还要慢，它们甚至懒得去吃，懒得去玩耍……但我们不要懒得去了解这种可爱的动物哦！

Sloths are tree-dwelling mammals that mainly live in the rainforests of South andCentral America. With their long arms and 1）shaggy fur， they 2）resemble monkeys， butthey are actually related to armadillos and anteaters. They can be 0.6 to 0.8 meterslong and， depending on species， weigh from 3.6 to 7.7 kilograms.

With long， curved claws， sloths can hang upside down with little or no effort.Sloths spend most of their lives in the trees， where they hang upside-down frombranches and 3）vines. Sloths eat， sleep. mate and even give birth while hangingaround in the trees！

Sloths eat leaves， fruit and some select fresh green 4）shoots. Though mostlyherbivorous， they may occasionally snack on a 5）arval insect. They 6）lap dew dropsoff of leaves and fruits， and get additional water from their food. Sloths have the lowest7）metabolic rate of any mammal， which means that it takes them a long time to digestanything. So long， in fact， that a sloth usually only climbsdown from its tree about once a week to poop！

True to their name， sloths sleep for about 15 hours a day. They're mostly8）nocturnal， sleeping during the daytime and waking up at night to eat. Sloths moveextremely slowly， only managing to cover about 6–8 feet （1.8–2.4 meters） per minute.As a comparison， walking at your normal speed you'd probably be moving at about 84meters per minute. So even when walking you're about 39 times faster than a sloth！But sloths are surprisingly good swimmers. They can swim through water three timesfaster than they can move on the ground！

树懒主要分布在南美洲和中美洲的热带雨林中，是一种树栖哺乳动物。树懒有着长长的手臂和蓬松的毛发，很像猴子，但实际上它们与犰狳和食蚁兽有近亲关系。它们可以长到0.6～0.8米，根据亚种的不同，重量可达3.6～7.7千克。

由于树懒长而弯曲的爪子，它可以毫不费力地倒挂在树上。树懒一生的大部分时间都在树上度过，它们在树枝和藤蔓上倒挂着。树懒在进行吃、睡、交配等活动时都悬挂在树上，甚至连生产时也是挂在树上！

树懒吃树叶、水果和一些精选的新鲜嫩芽。虽然它们大多是草食性的动物，但偶尔也會吃一些幼虫昆虫。它们舔食树叶和水果上的露珠，并从食物中获得额外的水分。树懒的新陈代谢率是哺乳动物中最低的，这意味着它们需要很长时间来消化任何东西。消化时间太长了，事实上，树懒通常每周只从树上爬下来一次拉便便！

树懒的懒惰名副其实，每天睡15个小时左右。它们大多在夜间活动，白天睡觉，晚上醒来吃饭。树懒移动极慢，每分钟只能爬6～8英尺（1.8～2.4米）。你可以比较一下，以你的正常速度行走，大约为每分钟84米的速度。所以，即使走路，你也比树懒快39倍！但出人意料的是，树懒擅长游泳。它们在水中游泳的速度是在地面上移动速度的三倍！