Slow Animals

These are the champions among slow-moving animals. Three-toed sloths travel at an average speed of 0.24 km/h (0.15 mph); however, despite that, they are agile swimmers. The muscles that sloths use to grip and produce a pulling motion are much more prominent than those that produce a pushing motion. This means that they struggle to support their body weight when walking on all four limbs, so traveling on the ground is a dangerous and laborious ...
process. Three-toed sloths live high in the canopy but descend once a week to defecate on the forest floor. They are usually active during the daylight hours and can move between different trees up to four times a day! Less

Due to their large size, the Galápagos tortoises are very slow-moving creatures. They have been observed to walk at a speed of 0.3 km/h (0.2 mph). They travel mostly in the early morning or late afternoon between resting and grazing areas. On the larger and more humid islands, these tortoises seasonally migrate between low elevations, which become grassy plains in the wet season, and meadowed areas of higher elevation in the dry season. These ...
same routes have been used for many generations, creating well-defined paths through the undergrowth known as "tortoise highways". Galápagos tortoises sometimes rest in mud wallows or rain-formed pools. Some individuals like to sleep in a snug depression in the earth or brush called a "pallet". When local tortoises use the same pallet sites, such as on Volcán Alcedo, this forms small, sandy pits by which you can tell if tortoises were there. Less

Manatees spend approximately 50% of the day sleeping submerged, surfacing for air regularly at intervals of less than 20 minutes. When not sleeping they usually spend time grazing in shallow waters at depths of 1-2 m (3 ft 3 in - 6 ft 7 in). Manatees are large and typically swim at about 5 to 8 km/h (3 to 5 mph). However, they are able to reach the speed of up to 30 km/h (20 mph) in short bursts. The main causes of death for these adorable ...
creatures are human-related issues. Unfortunately, their slow-moving, curious nature has led to violent collisions with propeller-driven boats and ships. Some manatees have been found with over 50 scars on them from propeller blades. Less

These slow nocturnal primates live in Southeast Asia and bordering areas. They are slow and deliberate climbers, and often hold on to branches with three of their four limbs. Due to their slow movement, these secretive creatures, have a specially adapted mechanism for defense against predation. Their slow, deliberate movement hardly disturbs the vegetation and is almost completely silent. Once disturbed, they immediately stop moving and remain ...
motionless. In Indonesia, slow lorises are called malu malu or "shy one" because they freeze and cover their face when spotted. Less

Koalas are among the largest arboreal marsupials. Most of their diet consists of eucalypt leaves and because they get so little energy from their diet, koalas must limit their energy use and sleep or rest 20 hours a day. They are quite slow in their movements and if needed are able to reach the speed of only up to 10 km/h (62 mph). Koalas are predominantly active at night and spend most of their waking hours feeding. They typically consume up to ...
400 grams (14 oz) of leaves a day, spread over four to six feeding sessions. Less

American woodcocks have the slowest flight speed ever recorded for a bird, 8 km/h (5 mph)! However, during migration, these birds can gain speeds of 26 to 45 km/h (16 to 28 mph). Woodcocks are also unique in that they have large eyes located high in the head, and their visual field is probably the largest of any bird, 360° in the horizontal plane and 180° in the vertical plane! It is believed that woodcocks orient visually using major ...
physiographic features such as coastlines and broad river valleys. Both the autumn and spring migrations of these birds are leisurely compared with the swift, direct migrations of many passerine birds. Less

These thorny desert-dwellers are interesting in many of their life adaptations. One of them is their unusual gait that involves freezing and rocking as the lizard moves about slowly in search of food, water, and mates. Thorny devils are covered in hard, rather sharp spines that dissuade attacks by predators by making them difficult to swallow. They also have a false head on their back. When they feel threatened by other animals, they lower their ...
head between the front legs and then present their false head. The only predators that are able to consume Thorny devils include wild birds and goannas. Less

Virginia opossums are slow nocturnal creatures that move slowly but can run at speeds up to 7.4 km (4.6 mph). They have long, hairless, prehensile tails, which can be used to grab branches and carry small objects. Virginia opossums are most active during the spring and summer. They do not hibernate but reduce their activity during the winter. Virginia opossums may not leave their dens for several days if the temperature drops below -7 to -4 ...
degrees C. Less

Unusually for a marsupial, the forelegs of the Tasmanian devil are slightly longer than its hind legs, and devils can run up to 13 km/h (8.1 mph) for short distances. The animal has long whiskers on its face and in clumps on the top of the head. These help the devil locate prey when foraging in the dark and aid in detecting when other devils are close during feeding. The whiskers can extend from the tip of the chin to the rear of the jaw and can ...
cover the span of its shoulder. Hearing is its dominant sense, and it also has an excellent sense of smell, which has a range of 1 km (0.6 mi). Since the Tasmanian devil hunts at night, its vision seems to be strongest in black and white. In these conditions, it can detect moving objects readily but has difficulty seeing stationary objects. Less

Gila monsters spend 90% of their life underground in burrows or rocky shelters. During their active season of approximately 90 days, only ten of those days Gila monsters were active. They are slow in sprinting ability, but they have relatively high endurance and maximal aerobic capacity for a lizard. Less