They also analysed the chemical make-up of the algae and found that it has as much carbohydrate and protein as the leaves that the sloths normally eat, but three to five times more fat. His team mixed the sloth fur with bacteria from a cow’s stomach and showed that the algae within can be easily digested. This matters because, according to Pauli, the algae are an important food source for the sloths. Either way, they seem to fertilise the algae. Maybe they die in the fur and release nitrogen when they’re decomposed by fungi. Maybe they’re transporting nitrogen-rich waste from the dung pile into the fur. Pauli believes that the moths seed the sloth’s fur with nutrients that spur the growth of the algae. And three-toed sloths have more of all the above than the two-toeds. If an individual has more moths, it also has more algae and more nitrogen. They found that the number of moths, the amount of algae, and the nitrogen content of the fur were all connected. They cut locks of hair from the animals, sucked up all the moths using an “invertebrate vacuum”, and analysed the chemical composition of the remaining fur and algae. To find out, his team compared two types of sloth in Costa Rica-the brown-throated three-toed sloth, which always defecates on the ground, and Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth, which only sometimes does so. So Pauli wondered: do the sloths also depend on the moths? Is that why they risk the dangers of terra firma, even though a squatting sloth is a sitting duck? Surrounded by a banquet of delectable sloth faeces, they slowly transform into adults, before flying into the canopy and colonising more sloths. While the sloths do their thing, the female moths fly off and lay eggs in the fresh dung. The moths are entirely dependent on the sloths, and specifically on their daring defecation descents. There can be up to 120 of them in one individual. #SLOTH POOP SKIN#Cryptoses moths live exclusively on sloths, probably feeding on their skin secretions or algae. For example, its hair contains cracks that collect rainwater, and acts as miniature hydroponic gardens for growing algae. The three-toed sloth even has adaptations that help it cultivate these partners. To them, the sloth is the only world they know. Many of these residents are found nowhere else. (In one case, scientists found 980 beetles in the fur of a single animal). In their fur, sloths host a diverse community of fungi, algae, insects, mites and ticks. It involves thinking of a sloth as less of an individual, and more of a mobile ecosystem. Otherwise, why waste energy and risk death, when they could just defecate from high branches and let gravity carry their poo away? Some people think that the sloths are fertilising their favourite trees, while others have suggested that they communicate with other sloths using the latrines.īut Jonathan Pauli from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has a different explanation. So why do it? Surely, there must be some advantage. If a sloth s**ts in the woods, predators seem to know. In fact, more than half of all sloth deaths are due to predators killing them while travelling to and fro their low latrines. Look at the video-Attenborough only has to slowly lean forward to scrag the animal. Sloths not only burn 8 percent of their daily calories on these laborious descents and climbs, but they are incredibly easy prey on the ground. It covers up its latrine with leaves before climbing back up. The sloth climbs down, digs a small bowl in the ground with its tail, and poos. “It wants to defecate,” says Attenborough, “and the only place it’s happy doing that, oddly enough, is down on the ground.” Sloths normally spend their lives hanging from high branches, but this one ambles down to the ground at the 1:10 mark. Here’s a memorable encounter between David Attenborough and a three-toed sloth, as shown in Life of Mammals.
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