We ended up stranded at the final stop on the line, called Puerto Nariño. I was very resourceful and borrowed a cell phone to call our travel guide, Henri, and he came to pick us up in his canoe. All things considered, it could have been much worse! Two of the most amazing animals that we saw in Iquitos and Leticia were arboreal, or tree-living, mammals. Think you know what kind of animal it was?
The arboreal mammals that we saw and interacted with were the three-toed Sloth in Iquitos, and the Howler Monkey in Leticia!
The sloth is famous for its slowness and for spending most of the time hanging upside down from the trees of the tropical rainforests. Some sloths move so slow that there fur becomes the color of moss since they have so much growing on them! The six species of sloths are separated into two families: two-toed sloths, and three-toed sloths. However, all sloths actually have three toes. The difference is that two-toed sloths have two digits, or fingers, on each forelimb. We got to see and hold a three-toed sloth!
Its hard to know how a Sloth is feeling, since it looks like it is always smiling! Their happy disposition goes well with their long limbs, rounded heads with tiny ears. Sloths can be pretty big: 24 to 31 in. length, and, depending on species, weigh 7.9 to 17.0 lb. Three-toed sloths also have small, stubby tails about 2.0 to 2.4 in long.
