Taking a lazy day to stay in your PJs seems like a fitting way to celebrate the world’s slowest moving mammal. However, International Sloth Day (October 20th) is more than an excuse to take it easy,  it is a day to recognize an important member of tropical ecosystems.

Sloths play an important role in tropical forest ecosystems. Scientists estimate in a healthy tropical forest, sloths should make up a significant percentage of all the mammals living in the forest (in terms of biomass). In other words, sloths are meant to be common.

Like the herbivores of the savannah, sloths are the grazers of tropical ecosystems, playing an important role in the cycling of resources throughout the forest. Having successfully survived on Planet Earth for almost 64 million years they form an important part of the food chain for ocelots, jaguars and harpy eagles.