Tag Archives: facts

A Sloth Named Velcro

Recently, American channel PBS screened a documentary titled “A Sloth Named Velcro” on Nature. Here’s a link to the video if you’re lucky to be in the US… it isn’t available in Oz unfortunately. I managed to get a hold of a copy though and it is fantastic! Very educational, informative, adorable, interesting and of course full of wonderful sloths of all kinds. Even taught me a thing or two.

 

slothvelcro

 

On a similar note, someone at work found out about my sloth obsession not that long ago. They didn’t even know what a sloth was. Bless. Then today it got brought up by someone else and said coworker says “So, okay, tell me about sloths”. Well. Where do I begin…

 

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The Tao of Sloths

The Tao of Sloth

What would it be like to be a sloth? Human life would be a blur. Sloths seem to embody a central tenet of Taoism “action through non-action” so let’s consider a “Tao of Sloth”:

  • Eat slowly – The sloth’s diet of leaves is hard to digest, their approach is to allow plenty of time
  • Hang out – Sloths save energy by hanging from their claws rather than using their muscles
  • Smile all the time – Sloths are cute and appear to smile though they’re not primates, they’re related to anteaters and armadillos
  • Be kind and others will be kind to you – Three-toed sloths climb down from the safety of the tree canopy to poo on the ground, for the benefit of moths that live in their fur (the moths in turn encourage the growth of beneficial algae)

Post Credit: BBC News

two and three toed sloths

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The Truth About Sloths

Great article on BBC Earth by Henry Nicholls on the “truth about sloths”, including interviews with Rory Wilson and Becky Cliffe who have pioneered the Sloth Backpack Project.

Reputation: Sloths are lazy and stupid. They have to be because they look it. They are covered in algae. Yuck! They climb to the ground to perform a ritual defecation at the base of a tree, a risky business when there are eagle-eyed, fleet-footed predators around. They are bad at crossing roads. Silly sloths.

 

Reality: Slowness is the ultimate weapon in an evolutionary war against eagle-eyed, fleet-footed predators. What better way to blend in with the forest than to cosy up with algae and fungi. Ritual defecation is the sloth equivalent of speed dating, just without the speed.

 

littlesloth2

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Newsworthy

The Saturday Advertiser newspaper (yesterday) had a liftout for “The Cutest Animal Pictures of All Time”. No sloth pictures. No good. How can you have a cutest animal lineup without a cute cute CUTE CUTE sloth!!??
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Luckily, there was a couple redeeming factors.

I spotted TWO “wild facts” about sloths on separate pages of the liftout. I love that sloths are newsworthy now. About time people start appreciating them! Still, wish there’d been a cute pic I could have gasped over when I saw.

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