This strange and appealing animal, one of the most common larger mammals in New World rainforests, has a lifestyle that is unusual but that suits it perfectly for life in the canopy. That means it doesn't need to eat as much, and it can live on leaves, which are not very nutritious. They even sleep and have babies in this position. Sloths eat the leaves of around fifteen to thirty different kinds of trees. But they spend most of their time in the branes of a few favorites.
Leaves are hard to digest, so sloths have special large stomachs.
Their digestion takes place at the same pace as the rest of their lives - very slowly. Food can take up to a month to pass through a sloth's digestive system. This is a long time, and leaves don't supply much energy. So sloths live in ways that use up as little energy as possible. Moving little and slowly is one way to save energy.