All of us like to cuddle the pillow and sleep for long hours specially on the weekends, but are all of us lazy sleepers? Oh! No  we are nowhere close to armadillos and sloths when it comes to sleeping. They take long beauty sleep which lasts for 15-20 hours in a day. Did you know that sloths move so less that algae grows on their backs and they eat the algae too? Eww! Think of the times when mum calls you lazy because you do not clean up your room, at least nothing is growing off your backs.

Sloths and armadillos are related and have the same set of specialized claws. Although they are both similar in their sleeping patterns, they are quite different in other things. While armadillos are mostly anteaters the sloths survive on leaves but sometimes eat insects and lizards. This is one of the reasons why they are so lethargic as they get very less nourishment from what they eat.

Sloths like to sleep on the trees hanging upside down where as armadillos like to stay in burrows that they dig using their special claws. Armadillos have powerful legs, and they are excellent diggers. On the other hand, the sloths are clumsy on the ground. Both the animals are excellent swimmers.

Sloths have large round eyes, a short nose, flat head, long tree-climbing legs and a smiling face. Armadillos have stubby, powerful legs, strong claws and a hard exterior that is for their own protection. However, their unique armor is made up of actual bones, making the armadillo rather inflexible.

Interesting facts –

• Armadillo comes from the Spanish, meaning “little armored one.”
• Did you know how much time it takes for a sloth to digest food? One month.
• Texas’s state small mammal is Armadillo.
• Even after dying the sloth will not lose its grip and remain hanging from a tree.