ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
15 
ADULT THREE-TOED SLOTH 
Method of progression on the ground 
surpassed, yet it is a fair average of twenty 
tests with half as many individuals. This cor¬ 
responds to a mile in six and a half hours. In 
the trees this speed is increased to two feet a 
second. But all sloths’ records are shattered 
is the feat of a 
hooks w'ith their claws, but two female sloths 
present the most unpleasant sight imaginable. 
After a brief sparring, one gives up and flees, 
or rather creeps, and never after attempts to 
defend herself. The other may for a time 
languidly feed, or sleep for hours, but it never 
by swimming. An average 
male not particularly vigor¬ 
ous, which swam sixty-five 
feet to the nearest bush on 
shore in two and a half 
minutes. This is two and a 
third feet a second, which is 
to say that, ignoring all con¬ 
trary currents and tides, a 
sloth, keeping up this rate of 
progress could cross a mile 
stretch of river in less than 
thirty-eight minutes. 
Dully tolerant as sloths 
are of whatever life or fate 
may bring, they are ex¬ 
tremely intolerant of one an¬ 
other. If several are placed 
on a large tree for observa¬ 
tion, one will always make it 
uncomfortable for the others, 
but in a small cage it is as 
good as murder to put two 
sloths together, especially if 
they be females. Males, or a 
male and a female, will usu¬ 
ally live grudgingly together, 
giving one another occasional 
IMMATURE THREE-TOED SLOTH 
An embryo within a few days of birth 
forgets its companion, and 
sooner or later,climbs toward 
the hunched up unfortunate, 
and deliberately begins to 
in flict as much damage as 
possible. Hook after hook is 
made, and the mysterious 
part is that the persecuted 
sloth permits herself to be 
unrolled and systematically 
clawed, a single swing some¬ 
times tearing part of the 
tender skin of the nose. 
Wailing at eacli attack, the 
hopeless creature lets go and 
lies flat on her back, with all 
her vulnerable parts exposed, 
apparently awaiting death at 
ther will of her companion 
sloth. The attacker tries, 
usually vainly, now and then 
to bite. Only once I saw one 
get hold of a hand instead 
of a mouthful of hair, and 
from the way it was 
wrenched away and from the 
ensuing wail, the flat teetli 
