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Baby sloths learn what to eat by licking the lips of their mother. [49] All sloths eat the leaves of Cecropia . Two-toed sloths are omnivorous , with a diverse diet of insects , carrion , fruits , leaves and small lizards , ranging over up to 140 hectares (350 acres).
Though two-toed sloths also eat buds, tender twigs, young plant shoots, fruits and flowers, most of their diets consist of tree leaves. [26] Two-toed sloths tend to eat younger leaves due to their higher nutritional content and easy digestibility in comparison with older leaves. [27]
They eat primarily leaves, but also shoots, fruits, nuts, berries, bark, some native flowers, and even some small vertebrates. [20] In addition, when they cannot find food, they have been known to eat the algae that grow on their fur for nutrients. [21] They have also been observed using mineral licks.
Sloths eat and digest food very slowly; it can take them 30 days to digest just one leaf! Because of their slow metabolism, sloths can starve to death even with a full belly.
At some point, being small was determined to offer a greater advantage, so the sloths shrunk over time. Researchers discovered this by going beyond the usual practice of studying only living species.
A large number of arthropods are associated with sloths. These include biting and blood-sucking flies such as mosquitoes and sandflies, triatomine bugs, lice, ticks and mites. The sloth’s fur forms a micro-ecozone inhabited by green algae and hundreds of insects. Sloths have a highly specific community of commensal beetles, mites and moths. [1]
Herbivory is of extreme ecological importance and prevalence among insects.Perhaps one third (or 500,000) of all described species are herbivores. [4] Herbivorous insects are by far the most important animal pollinators, and constitute significant prey items for predatory animals, as well as acting as major parasites and predators of plants; parasitic species often induce the formation of galls.
What we do know is, the moths benefit when the sloths leave their trees to poop. The more moths that make the sloth fur their home, the more the algae can grow, and the greener the sloth fur becomes.