Police in Quevedo, central Ecuador, found the animal holding on to the crash barrier for dear life, moving neither forwards or backwards.

Transit police posted about their unusual call-out on Facebook, which has seen the sloth become an online celebrity around the world in just a few days.

Sloths move only when they absolutely need to, and rarely leave the branches of their favourite trees.

As the motorway opened recently, it is likely that it lies in what once was a natural path of travel for the sloth.

As sloths only have a maximum ground speed of just over 6ft, it is believed the animal started making its way across the road, and then getting stuck as traffic sped up in the morning.