The most popular character in "Zootopia" is undoubtedly "Lightning", every move it seems to take a century to complete, and the prototype of Lightning is one of the laziest animals on earth - sloths.
The real sloths are actually similar to "lightning", they do things slowly, they can even have 90 hours a day to stay in the same position, on the ground, even if they encounter danger, they are full of firepower, the speed is only an embarrassing 3 meters per minute, so the sloth is dangerous when it comes down the tree to the ground, once it encounters a carnivore, it has nowhere to escape, and most of the sloth dies when it goes down the tree, but the reason why it goes down the tree is a little confusing:As an animal that is too lazy to move, it has to go down the tree every time it has a bowel movement
So, how did a sloth with such a weak ability to escape survive to this day? Why do sloths go down trees to defecate instead of "parachuting"? Does it really have a habit of cleanliness? Let's find out.
Sloths are a class of mammals, unlike other mammals, most mammals are homeothermic and can regulate their body temperature autonomously, but sloths are different, they are somewhat like ectotherms, and the temperature of the body will change with the change of ambient temperature, and the range of change is very large (between 20 and 35).
This relatively low body temperature and decrease with a decrease in ambient temperature makes the sloth's metabolism at least twice as slow as that of other mammals of the same size.
Sloths are the collective name of all animals under the suborder Trichocarpus sloths, they have appeared on the earth as early as the early Oligocene, in the process of evolution, sloths have also appeared behemoths, it is the ground sloth, the body length of the earth sloth can reach 6 meters, the weight can reach 5 tons, and today's African elephants are similar, but the early sloths are mostly ground sloths, they are active on the ground most of the time.
Over time, to the point where there are now only 6 species of sloths in two familiesSloths and two-toed slothsThe biggest difference is that the two-toed sloth is larger than the sloth, and the two-toed sloth has only two toes on the forelimbs, while the sloth has three toes before and after, and the two have parted ways for more than 28 million years.
Two-toed sloths. Today's sloths basically spend their lives in the trees, their omnivorous plant food diet is destined to be only on the tree to get food, and the sloth has a large amount of food, a full sloth has a weight of nearly 65 from the stomach, plus the sloth metabolism is slow, so, their energy demand is also relatively low.
Sloths' sharp claws and slender limbs are all made to grasp tree trunks, but the slender limbs account for less muscles, which makes them not fast to climb trees, the fastest 45 meters per minute. When it reaches the ground, its hind limbs are almost only supported by its claws during its crawling, so the sloth crawls on the ground with its forelimbs to drive its entire body with force, which is why they move slowly.
Although sloths appear to be slow and not aggressive (they can be easily dodged), they are one of the most abundant mammalian groups in the rainforests of Central and South America, with large numbers, especially on the island of Baro Colorado in Panama, where sloths account for more than 70 percent of the island's total mammal biomass.
Of the six species of sloths in existence, the pygmy three-toed sloth is critically endangered. In addition to the sloth, the other four sloths are all non-endangered species, which shows that the sloths have survived to this day, and they must have their own uniqueness.
Don't look at the sloth's long claws, but it is almost useless in terms of aggression, because it swings its arms too slowly, in the eyes of most animals is slow motion, it is too simple to dodge, and the speed of the sloth on the trees and the ground is also slow motion, which makes it a dead end once it is discovered by natural predators.
So, how did sloths survive today? There are three "magic weapons":
First: if you can, don't move。There are three main natural enemies of sloths: horned eagles, cougars and jaguars, among which the horned eagle is its biggest natural enemy, but although these animals have keen vision, they all have a strong locking ability for moving animals, and sloths are usually motionless, which makes sometimes these three animals pass under the trees where sloths inhabit it can not be found, therefore, most of the time it is motionless, just make the sloths themselves in dense bushes relatively safe.
Second: a good camouflage color. Whether it is a carnivore or a herbivore, it needs camouflage color, which is what we often call protective color, which allows carnivores to approach their prey silently, and can also make herbivores as few predators as possible to find out.
The sloth is quite perfect in terms of protective color, because the sloth is covered with thick hairs, which are close to the color of the bark, and the sloth also parasitizes a lot of green algae in the hair, which makes it look almost integrated with the trees, especially when it is not moving, even the sharp-eyed horned eagle is difficult to spot the sloth close at hand.
Third: the hair grows and the flesh is less. On the surface, the sloth is not small, with an average body length of about 70 cm, but in fact it weighs only 55 kilograms, this weight still includes stomach contents, bones and thick hair, but these things are basically "scraps" in the eyes of carnivores, remove these parts, only the meat is left and not even 1 3, that is to say, it is laborious to hunt a sloth in the bushes, not enough for an adult horned eagle to eat.
As a result, cougars and jaguars only pick up leaks when they encounter sloths climbing trees or on the ground, and sloths, as the sloth's greatest natural predator, are ranked behind spider monkeys, howler monkeys, proboscis raccoons, and anteaters in the prey priority of horned eagles.
In summary, although sloths are slow and have poor self-preservation ability, their life in trees has avoided most ground predators, coupled with excellent protective colors and the characteristics of little movement and less hair, so that they can survive to this day.
More than 70 percent of sloths are killed in the process of defecating in the trees, including the process of getting down the trees, reaching the ground, and returning to the trees.
Regarding this behavior of sloths, some zoologists initially believed that this behavior of sloths is to hide their habitat, because most sloths can survive on a tree for a long time, and if they continue to defecate on the tree during this time, then some animals can lock the sloth through the feces on the ground, so as to hunt and kill on the tree.
At first glance, there is nothing wrong with this statement, but it does not stand up to scrutiny, because the sloths that go down the tree also defecate near the tree, and although they will dig pits and bury them, for the cat with a keen sense of smell, this behavior is undoubtedly covering their ears and stealing the bell, and it is precisely this behavior of going down the tree that will cause them to die.
After that,Through careful research by zoologists, it was finally found that the reason why the sloth defecated under the tree was not to have a habit of cleanliness, nor to hide its location, but for the algae on its body
The algae on the sloth is the main ** of its protective color, which is related to survival, but the growth of algae in the hair also needs nutrients, so where is the ** of nutrition? Derived from the sloth moth, the sloth moth parasitizes the body surface of the sloth, and its feces are the main source of energy for algae growth.
However, the sloth moth cannot complete the reproduction on the sloth, it must lay its eggs in a relatively nutritious place, so the sloth's feces become almost its only choice, when the sloth defecates under the tree, the sloth moth will lay its eggs in the feces, and the eggs develop into larvae with the help of the nutrition and protection of the feces, and then become adults.
These adult sloth moths will parasitize the sloth again when it defecates on the ground, and of course this is also due to the habit of the sloth to defecate in the same place, so that the whole growth and reproduction are completed, and the sloth also benefits from it - better camouflage.
Sloths as an animal that can not move without moving, they can defecate on the ground, obviously not caused by cleanliness, after all, animals with "long hair" on their bodies will not have cleanliness, this behavior is obviously related to their survival, in other words, those sloths who do not have this habit, due to the body color and environment are too different, easy to be found by natural enemies, have been eliminated, and the rest are sloths with the habit of defecating under the tree. **10,000 Fans Incentive Plan