# Where Do Sloths Live?

> Where sloths live: Tropical rainforest canopy, native range cues, and human overlap. Status Least Concern.

- **Species:** Sloth (*Bradypus variegatus*)
- **Conservation status:** Least Concern
- **Diet:** Herbivore (folivore)
- **Habitat:** Tropical rainforest canopy
- **Lifespan:** Around 20 years in the wild
- **Top speed:** About 0.3 km/h (0.2 mph)
- **Canonical HTML:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/sloth/where-do-sloth-live/
- **Parent profile:** https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/sloth/
- **Last reviewed:** 2026-07-16

## Quick answer

Sloths are slow-moving tree-dwelling mammals native to the rainforests of Central and South America. They move at around 0.3 km/h (0.2 mph) and sleep up to 15 to 20 hours a day to conserve energy on a low-calorie leaf diet. Wild sloths typically live around 20 years.

## Who should skip this page

Skip this if you need a sighting hotline. This page is native range and habitat.

## Built for a slow life

Sloths live life in slow motion to survive on a diet of leaves, which provide very little energy. They have an extremely slow metabolism and can take up to a month to digest a single meal. Their slow movements also make them nearly invisible to predators such as eagles and big cats, which hunt by detecting motion.

## Help protect the Sloth

Slow-moving rainforest mammals lose ground every year as forests are cleared for timber and farmland.

[Donate to habitat protection](https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/appeals/habitats/)

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Source: Global Animal Guide (https://globalanimalguide.org/animals/sloth/where-do-sloth-live/). Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0 — free for non-commercial reuse with attribution.