Three-Toed Sloth Mating Season in Rio de Janeiro 2025
The usually solitary sloths gather only for mating and this is when they're most active
Best time: April–June
Considering the fact that a sloth diet consists mostly of leaves and plants with a very low nutritional value, they don't have much energy and are very slow, so slow that moss sometimes grows on its fur. In fact, they are the slowest mammals in the world. They live on the tops of the trees and are usually solitary. But during the mating season, all this changes. The three-toed sloths become more active, and they come together to mate. Female sloths scream to get the male's attention, and then males move forward and sometimes have to fight each other.
When baby sloths are born, they hold onto their mother's back for six to nine months and learn what vegetation is good to eat. The mating season usually occurs at the beginning of the dry season when there's more food. Visitors have a good chance to spot sloths at The Chico Mendes Ecological Reserve in Recreio. Jardim Botânico in Rio de Janeiro has some sloth species as well.
