When it comes to being chased by animals, there’s are a few terrifying options that come to mind.

These include a cheetah (or any big cat for that matter), grizzly bear, or a salt-water crocodile.

These three top my list because I imagine that once they have started chasing you, there really is no chance for escape.

For the croc scenario, you’d have to imagine yourself being out in the water– somewhere that they move fast but you move slow.

Anyways, the animal that probably sits at the very bottom of that list is a sloth.

These adorable, and very slow, creatures wouldn’t bother me in the slightest if they decided to come at me in a full-on chase.

And if you watch the video below, you’ll see exactly what I mean.

The video captures this sloth “racing” towards the cameraman at its top speed.

Which, according to Hyper Textbook, is only about 5 feet per minute. They also go on to say that, “Sloths are the slowest land mammals” and that “Up in the trees, they speed up to 15 ft/min.”

No matter how you look at it, these sloths would probably never catch you even if you weren’t aware that they were even chasing you.

However, if you put a few scenes of a sloth moving towards the camera to a thrilling soundtrack, the excitement of the chase rivals that of a faster animal.

In the first scene, we watch as the sloth reaches its arms out very slowly and drops its claws into the grass.

From there it slowly pulls its body forward and gets ready to throw another claw out in front of it.

These claws may be the most intimidating aspect of this slow animal.

They are long and curved and pointed–no doubt able to puncture your skin should the sloth be able to gain the speed and force necessary to do so.

Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that they can.

So these impressive claws begin to take on a cuter nature since they pose no real threat to us.

As the sloth crawls along on the ground, it is clear that it would rather be up in a tree.

Although it doesn’t move too much faster up there, it’s body clearly was made for arboreal transportation.

This awesome video was made possible by the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica.

This organization focuses on “the rescue, rehabilitation, research and, when possible, the release of sloths and educating people about conserving the rainforest, the sloths’ natural habitat.”

Due to deforestation and expanding development, the sloth’s home in the forest is becoming increasingly threatened.

And as you will see, relocating as a sloth would be a momentous task.

It’s great to see that there are organizations like this in Costa Rica that offer help to these amazing creatures.

If nothing is done to help the struggling animal population, we may lose certain species altogether someday.

So if you love animals and enjoy the unique qualities of specific species, this sloth video is for you.

Watch this amazing animal move at its own pace and enjoy the humor of the slow chase.

And don’t forget to do your part in environmental conservation so that we can enjoy these animals for years to come.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Article Sources:

AnimalistToo

Hyper Textbook

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By B.T. Swezey

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B.T. Swezey is a contributor at SBLY Media.