Giant Sloth

Difficulties

Since ground sloths thrived in an environment filled with large predators, they evidently would have been able to also defend themselves against human predation, so there is no reason to expect that they would have been "easy pickings." When feeding, they had enough strength to use their long, sharp claws to tear apart tree branches; presumably their strength and formidable claws would be dangerous for hunters that attempted to attack them at close quarters. But fossilized evidence of humans hunting on ground sloth in White Sands National Park suggests that the slow-moving giant sloths were likely easy prey for early humans possibly hurling spears.