Our Work: The Eternal Sloths
How Long Do Sloths Live?
Nobody actually knows how long sloths live in the wild. Almost everything we know about sloth longevity comes from animals living in zoos, where some two-fingered sloths have reached around 50 years old. Three-fingered sloths do not adapt as well to captivity, so their potential lifespan remains an even bigger mystery.
A mammal of their size would ordinarily be expected to live for around 20 years, but sloths have never been particularly interested in following the rules. Some researchers believe they could potentially live for 50, 60 or even 70 years. Lifespan is often linked to metabolic rate, and sloths have the slowest metabolic rate of any non-hibernating mammal. So the truth is, we have no idea.
The problem is that answering this question requires researchers to know how old a sloth is in the first place. Once a sloth reaches adulthood, there is currently no reliable way to determine its age.
The Eternal Sloths study is a long-term effort to understand the lifespan of wild sloths across different habitats (something that has never been documented before).
We suspect wild sloths may live for 50+ years, which means this study could span generations. By adopting one of our Eternal Sloths, you can follow their journey through live GPS tracking and be part of this research for years to come!
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Luiza
The matriarch of our sloth family! Luiza has been with us the longest and is singlehandedly repopulating the coastal forest—four babies in four years and still going strong.
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Deborah
From a rough start living in a hole by the roadside (and more than one rescue mission!), Debbie is now one of our greatest success stories, and also a proud mom!
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More Sloth Research
