Yesterday while exploring local attractions a group of us happened upon a sloth presentation. Keen to see all the weird and wonderful creatures of the world we eagerly attended. Organised by a local animal rescue organisation, the presentation included a real living rescued sloth!
Seven Fun facts about Sloths:
- They have a maximum speed of 240m/hour
- Their muscles don’t produce lactic acid so they don’t get tiered…a sloth can hang upside down all day without getting tiered
- Their slow speed is due to their very low metabolism (heart
- In the dry season they go to the bathroom only once a week
- To poop they go to the bottom of a tree, while holding on to the tree wiggle their tail to dig a hole, do the deed, and then use their tail to cover it up again before proceeding back up the tree
- Sloths have very bad eye sight and if you stand still in front of one it will think you are a tree and climb you…until it realizes you are not a tree at which point prepare to be bitten and stabbed viciously…until it gets tiered and falls asleep suddenly because sloths can’t really put up a fight for very long
- Sloths have nine can turn their head up to 280 degrees
Today we went on an excursion to another part of the forest. By excursion I mean we walked about 600m in 2.5 hours. We’re still a little faster than a racing sloth but not by much. This is what happens when one stops every 5m to examine some biological phenomenon.
Standing in the parking lot waiting to head back we spotted…another sloth. This was a female with a baby clinging to her stomach
When we approached she curled up on a vine and stayed very still. Given her fur colour and the shape of her “hiding in plain view” body, we hypothesized that she was attempting to look like an Azteca ants nest as a defense mechanism since running from predators is not a valid option.
We returned to the school house and after a rapid work out video involving an alarming amount of jumping, dinner (milkshakes, pasta, plantains and chicken) and an evening lecture began brainstorming possible research projects…quickly discovering that even seemingly simple projects face many logistical difficulties given limited time, resources and knowledge of tropical ecology.
Lets see what we all come up with!
– Kathleen
Ready for Adventure 