Sloths are mid-sized, arboreal mammals that spend the
majority of their time concealed in the canopy of neotropical
forests. Known as ‘perezosos’ (‘the lazies’) in Spanish,
sloths represent one of the most sessile mammals on the
planet. Their extremely low metabolic rates and low-quality,
largely folivorous diets require extended periods of
inactivity; when they move, sloths do so slowly and deliberately
(Montgomery & Sunquist 1975; Nagy & Montgomery
1980). As a result, sloths have a weak dispersal
ability compared to other mammal species and, coupled
with their obligate forest life history, are likely to be sensitive
to the fragmentation and degradation of tropical forests
(Tilman, Lehman & Yin 1997; Hoehn, Sarre & Henle
2007). Indeed, maned sloths Bradypus torquatus and
pygmy three-toed sloths B. pygmaeus have been classified
as vulnerable and critically endangered by the International
Union for the Conservation of Nature, respectively,
in part due to habitat loss and degradation (IUCN 2013).
Sloths inhabit shade-grown farms such as cacao where a
significant part of the overstorey has been removed
(Vaughan et al. 2007), but it is unclear whether such agricultural
systems can support viable sloth populations in
the absence of surrounding forests