Sloths: A Celebration of the World’s Most Misunderstood Mammal

by William Hartston

In public estimation, sloths have undergone an astonishing transformation in the course of the past few years. Thanks largely to YouTube clips posted by the sloth orphanage in Costa Rica, sloths have attracted a vast audience of admirers. Instead of seeing them as ridiculous anachronisms of which we know little, they have turned into creatures considered by many to be the most endearing on earth. Over much the same period, scientific investigations have also changed our view of sloths. No longer are they seen as total misfits in the modern world but, in the words of one specialist sloth investigator, they are "masters of an alternative lifestyle." This wonderfully entertaining book reveals the fascinating history of the sloth, from the prehistoric ground sloth to modern pygmy sloths in Panama, explores the current state of the science of sloths, and reveals the truth behind sloth behavior.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Science, Nature, Biology

208 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2020

About the author

Full name: William Roland Hartston.

Reviews

[M.N. Cox]

"No longer are they seen as total misfits in the modern world but, in the words of one specialist sloth investigator, they are 'masters of an alternative lifestyle'."
(From the book's blurb)

This is a fun book on sloths aimed at adult readers. Yes, I do believe there are plenty of adults lurking around who want, or even need, to know more about sloths. Hartston was one of them, and so he wrote this book for us. Thank you, William Hartston.



The book tells the history of sloths as we currently know it and will teach you about the different types of sloths that exist today. You will come to realise it's unfair, and disingenuous of some people, to call sloths lazy. In fact, they are entirely, and cleverly, built for a specific lifestyle at which excel.

They may be brutally slow movers, but it makes sense given their lifestyle. Plus they are low emissions despite all their burping, are smart - as smart as a cat or dog - yet know when to give up and take a nap, and don't set out to hurt people. Actually, they are peaceful and shy, although they can harm with their claws when attacked or provoked. That seems fair to me and you've been warned.



The Pygmy sloth is, sadly, critically endangered. In general, though, sloth kind are harmed by much the same as other wildlife. This includes deforestation, traffic accidents (while they are crossing, of course, as sloths do not drive), hunting, capture for the pet trade, etc. They will, of course, be affected by climate change.

Also…sloth selfies. It's a thing. Don't do this. They don't like it.



If nothing else has made you want to read this book then maybe this particular fact will: Sloths (unlike other mammals) have a body temperature that adjusts to the environmental temperature. Surely you want to know a bit more about them, now?

Okay, what if I told you they only defecate once a week and they generally climb down from their tree in order to do so? Aha! Now I've got your interest!




So adorable 😍

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun sloth fact (that I learnt because of this book): sloths can swim twice as fast as they can walk! They are also very buoyant due to the high concentration of methane in their stomachs.

This book has given me plenty of facts to launch at my unsuspecting, uneducated on sloths, victims Mwahhahhahahha

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sloths, whether two-toed or three-toed, are characterised by supreme energy efficiency: they'd definitely earn full stars for energy rating. This is a beautifully presented book, with a generous supply of engaging photographs of limpid eyed sloths hanging around, living their best life, and placidly aiding scientists in their investigations.

Hartston addresses canards of past naturalists, who considered sloths misbegotten and pitiful creatures, not having observed them in their natural habitat.

Most fascinating were the insights into the natural history of sloths - sharing a couple of remarkable facts from Chapter 5:

(Sloths) can go for twenty minutes or more without breathing, then resume without even panting.

Unique among warm-blooded creatures, their blood temperature adjusts over a wide range to match that of their surroundings thus saving the energy that would be needed to maintain a constant temperature.

[Freya Smeets · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, William Hartston (star of Gogglebox) is a very clever man. This was an incredibly well-researched and well-informed book that tells you everything you need to know about sloths: where their name came from and the misconceptions that go along with it, sloth conservation and all the films that include a strong sloth lead.

It was written in slight similarity to a research paper or dissertation, which made it quite difficult to adapt to the language in the first few chapters - once you get into it though, it was a very good book and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

"I would come back as a sloth. Hanging from a tree, chewing leaves sounds great." David Attenborough (2011)

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful!

[Femke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een aardig boekje over de luiaard en zijn geschiedenis. Soms wel wat te wetenschappelijk en saai, maar over het algemeen leuk om te lezen.

[Maarit · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars. Nice little non-fiction book abouth sloths and their history. Could have perhaps used a bit more organizing, because there were quite a bit of repeating things in such a shortish book. The photopages and illustrations of the book were a nice extra touch.

[7jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course, as the author mentions here, there are books about sloths for kids these days, but adults may need books about them, too. His opinions are clear throughout the book, but rarely irritate. There’s also three bunches of photos to look at, with ‘witty’ titles sometimes, but then this book has some UK-centredness and I can understand. (He has previously written books about chess and fun-facts.)

He came across sloths, and fell in love with them, through Youtube videos (incl. the Kristen Bell one). And now he’s written a book about it. First mentions about sloths in English writing appear in the 16th century, but for a long time very few true facts are given (partly because people don’t realise that sloth is miserable on the ground, and moves better in trees. And the sloths brought in to UK don’t live very many years at first because the care in zoos isn’t as good as it is now.

He then talks about the differences between the two and three-toed ones. Sloths have been around for 50 million years, with some being really big ground-dwellers (there has been at least 80 different kinds of sloths). There’s also some pre-Darwin evolution theories, which I find a bit surprising but interesting. And are they slothful? They actually sleep usually 9 hours a day; the slowness is more due to not needing to move around eating so much, good for hiding etc. They’re simply saving energy. Anatomy is also interesting a chapter to read: no front teeth but yes back teeth, long digestion system, weekly toilet, large neck rotation range, can hold breath 20 minutes and not pant afterwards, can swim, some polydactyls among them (extra-toed, like cats) etc.

Sex life is talked about, and so are their poop habits. There are some myths among people who live in the same places as the sloths. (The chapter about the sloth-as-a-sin is actually interesting to me.) The chapter about eating goes two ways: sloths eating, and those who eat sloths (the meat needs good prep and spices).

There’s also stuff about conservation of them (esp. the rare pygmy sloth who lives on just one island in Panama), and what can be found in culture (books, newspaper and magazine cartoons, in animated films, advertisements, zoos, Christmas stuff, stamps, and music).
And finally there’s the miscellaneous stuff, incl. sloths in UK political speeches, detective stories, intelligence research, inspiring hammock use, and how much carbon emissions they give (not very much). At the end are some further-reading/watching hints, plus the biscuits recipe (including making your own sloth cookie-cutter).

So, if you want to learn about sloths, deeper than a children’s book can give you, this one is a pretty nice choice, and may inspire you to go online, read, or watch films about them (watching “Zootopia” is certainly something I will do in the future). I must’ve been in the mood for learning about sloths when I bought this, and I don’t regret that at all, because this was such a good read.

[Jack Sparks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely obsessed with this author and his love letter to sloths. I'm not usually one for non fiction but I may get more into it after this. Rather than reading like a textbook the author narrates the history, culture, etymology, origin, and mysteries of sloths with a clear an outspoken goal to have them get the love they deserve!!! I have never seen an author or human as aggressively defensive of sloths as I am.

Fun sloth facts I learned (abridged):

Megasloths were the primary eaters and planters of avocados. They probably became extinction as a result of human hunting and we aren't exactly sure how avocados survived without them

Thomas Jefferson was the most trusted voice in archeology at a time when a sloth skeleton was discovered so a type of sloth was named after him.

The two and three toed sloth varieties have been different genetic lines longer than cats and dogs

The book Life of pi was one of the more significant dominoes in western media that brought sloths to attention (along with slowly slowly goes the sloth a book by the same author as a very hungry caterpillar)

Sloths pooping habbits are a bit mysterious, due to the way they conserve energy (wich i won't bore you by going into) it would make more sense for them to poop and pee from the branches where they hang but once weekly they leave their trees and poop on the ground. This may be because the breed of moths that live in the moss on sloths backs helps the sloth to conserve energy by providing nitrogen. The sloth does its part to breed the moths by pooping on the ground so the moth eggs in the poop have the soil nutrients to help them grow and join the moss on another sloth.

Sloths can disembowel jaguars

Sloths swim twice as a fast as they move in trees

Sloths are the most energy efficient mamal

Many of the moss and microbes that live exclusively on sloths have great potential for medicine. When populations stabilize, we learn more about sloths and how to care for them, and research on sloths picks up, they may bee looking at potential (most promisingly) for a new antibiotic and a treatment for breast cancer (you heard me!!!)

Slothconservation.com is a good place to go to learn about sloth rescue

[Carly Really Very Normal · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. This was a delightful and quick little read all about the charming sloth. Including chapters on the history of the language and naming conventions around 'sloth,' historical accounts of Europeans 'discovering' the animal, myth and folk lore, pop culture, their physical characteristics, I really learned a lot from this. The full color photograph insets were also very cute. I do wish that there had been more on/about/from the point of view of the indigenous peoples and their history with the animal. This was very much written by a white British dude, which, there's nothing wrong with that, but you know, these animals and the humans they lived alongside existed long before the Spanish, British, and French 'discovered' the New World.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hoped to learn a bit about sloths before a trip to Costa Rica, but I didn't get much new out of this book. It read like a regurgitation of other writings about sloths. If you are interested in the history of natural history and how science has evolved over the years, the way that sloths have been studied and described provides an interesting case study for this. I would not recommend the book, but also admit that it is sort of just what it says it is - a "celebration" of the sloth moreso than a book where you will learn about the animals themselves.

[Tracey · Rating 1 out of 5]

nonfiction/history of behaviors of sloths
I'm all for sloths, and nonfiction, and even nonfiction history, but the first 1/3 of the book (3-4 chapters) was SO BORING. This is less a "Celebration" than just a dull recounting of the author's research. One assumes that the later chapters about sloth behavior would be more interesting, but unfortunately I was so unimpressed that I didn't care to continue.

[Shriya Uday · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a fan of animal books that are memoirs, which seems like all of them these days, so this was a nice change.

The writing was fun, the content well researched and laid out and not afraid to go into scientific detail when necessary.

Reading the book has given me questions i didn't know i had before which is what all good science should do.

I've fallen in love with sloths again and it's time i find the project i did on then in 7th grade and see how much of it still holds up.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I learned some fun new trivia facts, it felt like the author did a google search and copy and pasted every single historical quote or modern media mention of a sloth into this book, making the actual reading very clunky and not always relevant.

Cool to know though that studies discovered 80 NEW types of fungi living in the algae in sloth fur that display potent anti-parasitic, anti-cancer, and antibacterial bioactivity. Save the rainforest, save the sloths! 🦥

[Berit · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are into sloths it offers you a great deal of fascinating trivia and several good laughs. But it could have needed a firm hand of a more picky editor - just finding everything sloth-related and stuffing it into a book rather randomly doesn't make a good read necessarily. Some things could have been easily thrown out and some rearranged and it would have become much more coherent book.

[Emily | Planned & Planted · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were a few slow parts 😉 but overall a lot of really fascinating information about a fascinating species. I was expecting it to be more scientific information vs historical but there was more so of the latter, which was still interesting! Can’t wait to annoy all of my friends with random sloth facts 🦥

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of sloths this book was a fabulous read, it was really interesting finding out how the sloth got it's name and the confusion their way of life caused the first European people who encountered it.

Plus the photos and illustrations were adorable.

Well worth the read for those who want to learn more about sloths.

[The Inquisitive Biologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining and informative, this book is the only primer currently on the market and gives a well-rounded picture of sloths and slothdom. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2019...

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love sloths, because they're incredible critters. This was pretty dry a lot of times, though I enjoyed seeing the photos. Not sure if I'll read any more nonfic books about animals, but I'm happy to have read outside my comfort zone with this one.

[Riku Kauhanen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arvio blogissani:

https://kaivettuajakaivattua.blogspot...

[Amanda Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting look at what is perceived to be a lazy animal, based on its name.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well-cute, amusing, and interesting book about sloths. I'm amazed at how little we know about these wonderful weirdos, but a lot of what we do know is pretty wild.

[Jessi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first 1/3 of the book is largely comprised of excerpts from every mention of the sloth or sloth (the sin) in history. Bor-ing. Picked up at the end tho.

[Tapani Aulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pieni kirja laiskiaisista, niiden tutkimuksen historiasta ja vähän nykytilastakin. Pintaraapaisu, ja tekisi mieli lukea enemmänkin.

[Marilyn]

fascinating and funny
On page 33

[Arenal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the title of this one, and it was a fun read, especially before a trip where we got to see lots of sloths!

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy learning fun facts about animals and you think sloths are cute you will enjoy this book.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! If you love cuddly, adorable sloths as much as I do, then you'll love learning about them just a little bit more by reading this book. I love that the author is just an "ordinary person" writing the book because he loves sloths; it isn't a scientific read, so that makes it an easy and fun read.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Almost as much as I love sloths (which is a lot). OK, seriously, it's incredibly well researched which is unusual for any publication about sloths, is well written, funny and about as comprehensive as one can wish for.