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How do sloths control their body temperature?
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sloth
Juvenile three-toed sloth (Bradypus) climbing a tree branch.
Sloths do not maintain a constant body temperature like most other mammals. Instead, they are heterothermic, meaning they have only imperfect control over their internal body temperature.12
Normally, a sloth’s body temperature ranges between 25 and 35 °C (77 and 95 °F). Because they lack the robust internal thermoregulation mechanisms found in many other mammals, their body temperature can drop as low as 20 °C (68 °F), at which point the animals become torpid. To manage their temperature, sloths often utilize behavioral adaptations, such as sunning themselves high in the forest canopy.12