Ecuadorean Ground Sloth

Ecuadorean Ground Sloth : Sloth-like mammal of South America.

Physical description:

Length, 10 feet. Long hair. Long, horselike snout.

Behaviour:

Can stand on hind legs but walks on all fours.

Habitat:

Caves. Browses on vegetation.

Distribution:

Ecuador.

Present status:

Only one report from Ecuador in the 1980s.

Possible explanation:

A surviving Giant ground sloth (Megatherium), which could walk either bipedally or quadrupedally. This sloth was a large-bodied browser that lived in South America from the Late Pliocene to the Pleistocene, 1.9 million–8,000 years ago.

Source:

• “Giant Ground Sloth Survival Proposed Anew,” ISC Newsletter 12, no. 1 (1993– 1996): 1–5.

SEE ALSO:

• Sloths
• Cryptozoology

SOURCE:

Mysterious Creatures – A Guide to Cryptozoology written by George M. Eberhart – Copyright © 2002 by George M. Eberhart