Hanging out on International Sloth Day

Sloths don't have much need for a fitbit. Their legendarily low metabolic rate means they barely cover 37 meters on an average day. The slow-paced creature has become a symbolic panacea for our hectic times. No wonder handmade goods site Etsy declared the sloth 2019's "it" animal for its "laid-back demeanor" and "real-life representation of the carefree lifestyle many of us strive for every day."

This "brown-throated" sloth, the most common of the four species of three-toed sloth, is marked by its constant smile due to an upturned mouth, and is seen here chilling out on a tree branch in Costa Rica. While classified to be of "least concern" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, some populations are threatened by deforestation, habitat fragmentation and human encroachment.

Sloths are among the slowest-moving animals on Earth. While they can swim a little, they can barely walk. In fact, they only descend from the trees once a week to defecate. Their slow nature makes them easy prey for jaguars, large birds like eagles, and of course humans who hunt the protected species for meat, and for the black market; to sell as pets, or as attractions for snap-happy tourists.

The oldest known sloth in the world lives in Germany and turned 50 this year. Two-toed sloth Paula was born in South America in 1969 and arrived at the Mountain Zoo in the city of Halle back in 1971. Paula is one of almost 300 sloths living in Europe far away from their equatorial homeland.

Sloths were more of a handful a few thousand years ago. Standing over 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall with massive forelegs tipped with claws, giant sloths were formidable adversaries for prehistoric humans. But homo sapiens hunted the animal into extinction around 11,000 years ago, according to scientists. Humans are still hunting the smaller sloth today.

Living exclusively on the island of Escudo de Veragua off the Caribbean coast of Panama, the pygmy three-toed sloth is a cute, compact variety which is also critically endangered due to its fast-diminishing habitat area, namely the mangrove forests covering only around 1.5 square kilometers of its island home.

A sloth holds on to the post of a traffic barrier on a highway in Ecuador. Transit police officers who had been patrolling the new highway found the sloth after it had apparently tried to cross the street searching for its natural habitat. The disorientated sloth was returned to the wilds this time, but loss of habitat remains a growing problem.