Monocultures and human
development habitats were excluded from the second
analysis as sloths are predominantly observed in cocoa,
tropical forest and cattle pastures, and rarely utilize
monocultures or human development (Vaughan et al.
2007). To test for third-order habitat selection, we
considered used habitat to be the proportion of relocations
that occurred in each habitat. We quantified available habitat by generating random points within each sloth’s
home range (where the number of points was equal to
the number of observed relocations) and calculated the
proportion of locations occurring in each habitat type.
We usedManly’s Alpha preference index to test for habitat
selection at both levels across all individuals (Manly et al.
2002). We inferred selection for a particular habitat type
if the observed index exceeded the expected value and did
not overlap in the 95% CI. Conversely, we inferred that
sloths avoided a habitat type if the observed index was less
than the expected values and did not overlap in the 95%
CI.