In the trees, sloths live, feed, and give birth.
They do, however, descend to the ground once a week to conduct the most perilous thing
their kind could do: take a dump.
On the ground, more than half of all sloth deaths occur.
So, why do sloths put their lives in jeopardy because of their potty habits?
There used to be dozens of sloth species around.
The giant ground sloth, for example, was the size of Mammoths.
With claws the length of a man's forearm.
There are six living species now, divided into two groups.
Three toed sloths - the ones with the Beatles haircuts.
Then there are the two-toed sloths.
Both reside in Central and South American jungles.
Sloths may appear boring at first glance, but a closer investigation reveals that they
are highly unique.
Sloths are known for conserving energy.
Performing around 10% of the physiological labor that mammals of comparable size accomplish.
They also have a variety of remarkable adaptations that allow them to live on as few as 160 calories
each day.
They've realized that being fast takes a lot of energy.
Their food, which is mostly made up of leaves, is nutritionally insufficient as well as difficult
to digest.
To adapt, sloths have evolved a four-chambered stomach, similar to a cow's, in which they
digest their food using a variety of gut bacteria.
One single leaf might take up to a month for sloths to break down.
So this sloth isn't exactly a couch potato.
He's actually preoccupied with digesting to pay attention to anything else.
The skeletal muscle in sloths is roughly half that of terrestrial mammals.
Turning their lives upside down saves energy, and they can do almost anything in this inverted
position.
Because their fur grows backwards, they can drip dry after tropical storms.
Sloths can swim three times quicker than they can walk on land in the water.
They can also hold their breath for 40 minutes under water due to their capacity to slow
their heart to one-third its regular rate.
A decent swim also helps to keep the sloth's sophisticated hair system moisturized.
Sloths are as much an ecosystem as they are an animal, and they are willing to take significant
risks to ensure that this world remains intact.
The three-toed sloth defecates once a week by climbing down from the trees and digging
a little hole in the ground with its tail.
Then it climbs back up, covering its latrine with leaves.
This action appears to be completely unnecessary.
Sloths not only expend about one tenth of their daily calories on these exhausting descents
and climbs, but they also make for easy ground prey.
They're likely to come across predators like the Harpy Eagle or Jaguar when wandering about
on the jungle floor.
In fact more than half of all sloth deaths occur when predators strike as they are traveling
to and from their low-level latrines.
So, why do the sloths do it?
What we consider to be sluggish appears to scientists to be strange.
Due to sloths' slow metabolism and limited leaf diets, a simple trip down to the forest
floor consumes a significant portion of their daily energy budget.
They also face more predators on the forest floor.
"It's as if you needed to use the restroom and were forced to run a 5K on a highway before
you could do so."
This perilous habit has long baffled scientists, and there are numerous theories as to why
sloths engage in it.
For example, they could be fertilizing a favorite tree or communicating with other sloths.
But Jonathan Pauli from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has a different explanation.
The answer, he and his colleagues believe, could be found in the sloth's little ecosystems.
Sloths have a complex community of fungi, algae, insects, mites, and ticks hidden in
their hair.
Many of these residents can't be found anywhere else.
The three-toed sloth even has adaptations that help it cultivate these partners.
Its hair, for example, has cracks that absorb rainfall and serve as a small hydroponic garden
for algae to thrive in.
Moths are also found in their fur.
Cryptoses moths only feed on sloths, most likely from their skin secretions or algae.
On a single individual, there can be up to 120 of them.
These moths are completely reliant on sloths, particularly their daring defecation descents.
Moths accompany three-toed sloths as they descend to the forest floor to defecate.
Female moths fly off and lay their eggs in the new poo while the mammal is doing its
thing.
The larvae eat nothing else.
Adult moths fly up to the canopy in search of sloths and mates after leaving the poomoji.
The moths boost the quantity of nitrogen in the sloth's fur, allowing algae to flourish.
As a result, the moths aid in the fertilization of the sloth's algal gardens, providing the
sloth with an important source of energy.
It's a complete sloth-moths circle.
By investigating the chemical contents of the algae, the experts around Pauli realized
that it had the same quantity of carbs and protein as the leaves that sloths eat on a
regular basis.
It also has three to five times more fat, which provides a much-needed supplement to
the sloth's otherwise nutrient-deficient diet.
Sloths are thought to benefit from the green algal bloom because it helps them blend in
with their lush surroundings, providing them with additional camouflage protection from
predators.
A trip to the bathroom is no relaxation for the three-toed sloth.
But it appears to be well worth the effort.
It's also very clever to use its own poop to grow a tasty food, right?
Scientists point to related mutualisms between sloths, algae, and moths as an example of
intelligence.
In the fur habitat, the moths find shelter and grow.
They also transport nutrients to their new home when they die and decay, as well as from
the dung they were born in.
These nutrients encourage algal growth in the fur, and the algae provide lipids to sloths'
leaf diets, which the researchers believe may be used as a high-energy snack.
In the wildlife domain, mutually beneficial life cycles are prevalent.
For example, leaf cutter ants collect leaves in a similar way to feed the fungi that dwell
on their abdomen.
That's a different story for another time.
So, that’s all we have for you today!
Thanks for watching.
See you guys in the next video.