Fact 156: What animal is an Unau?
Fact 156: What animal is an Unau?
The answer is a sloth more pacifically it is a Linnaeus's two-toed sloth also known as the two-toed sloth and the southern two toed-sloth.
The Unau's scientific name is Choloepodidae didactylus.
The word Unau comes from a *Tupí word, unaü or uná meaning lazy.
The most interesting thing I have found out about this sloth (that I didn't already know) is like all sloths it has three toes on its back legs, and this sloth has two toes on its front legs.
The top speed of the southern two-toed sloth is 0.17mph this is slow compared to the fact that the slow Walking speed for most adults is around 3 mph and a fast walking speed is 4-5 mph.
When the Unau is swimming its speed is about 13.5 meters per minute (44 feet per minute) and when a human is swimming its speed on average is about 53.645 meters per minute (176.000656 feet per minute).
The reason that sloths are very slow is due to low metabolism which is linked to the fact that it can take up to a month for the southern two-toed sloth to digest its food and because of this it also eats less than half of the calories for animal and mammal for its size, 23-28 inches.
On average, the Unau travels about 41 yards per day which is less than half the length of a football field!
They also struggle at walking because their long claws make it challenging for them to walk on the ground.
*Tupí also known as the Tupian people are also known as Native Brazilians from Brazil.
