Shasta ground sloth

The Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) was a species of ground sloth native to California during the late Pleistocene.

Depiction
The Shasta ground sloth in Wild New World has a rather basic design, with light brown hair. In Ice Age Giants, the design is more extreme: the animal has long, sandy-coloured hair; a mask-patterned face; and long white hair atop its head. In both series' it is depicted as a cave-dwelling browser living in the savannahs and deserts of California, surviving on Joshua trees and other desert vegetation.

The Canyonlands
In The Canyonlands, the everday life of a Shasta ground sloth from the Grand Canyon is reconstructed from a number of bones and preserved dung balls. The sloth shares the canyon with Columbian mammoths, Smilodons, American cheetahs, dire wolves, camels, bison and horses. It shares its own cave with vampire bats and woodrats.

Land of the Sabre-tooth
In Land of the Sabre-tooth, a Shasta ground sloth defending itself against a Smilodon is reconstructed. Alice Roberts sees the cave and the preserved dung of the sloth. In this program, the sloth's extinction is put down to climate change.

List of appearances

 * Wild New World
 * 102. The Canyonlands
 * Wild New World: Re-creating Ice Age North America
 * Ice Age Giants
 * 101. Land of the Sabre-tooth