【Text: Frost Moth, Calendar of First Species】
South America is a mysterious continent, and the large tropical rainforest climate has given birth to countless creatures with strange morphological habits, which often amaze the humans of the Old World, some of which have become star species and become synonymous with South America, and sloths are one of them.
Brown-throated three-toed sloth: Drink, the rare and strange Old World spicy chickens have come to see me again. Image: Flickr
Brown-throated three-toed sloth bradypus variegatus belongs to the order Phiphi, sloth family, is the most widely distributed in the sloth family, the most common in South America, from southern Brazil to Nicaragua in Central America. The other three sloths of this genus are relatively narrowly distributed, such as the diphtheria three-toed sloth b. Tridactylus is found in northeastern South America, with mane three-toed sloths b. Torquatus is found only in a small rainforest along the eastern coast of Brazil, where the critically endangered pygmy three-toed sloth b. Pygmaeus is found only on a small island in Panama's Belaguas province and lives in a mangrove forest of 4.3 square kilometers, with a total population of less than 80.
The white-throated three-toed sloth, the whole face and neck are white. Image: flickr.com
Extant Phiphis also includes pygmy ant-eaters, anteaters, and two-toed sloths, which are similar in length to three-toed sloths, except that they have only 2 paws on their forelimbs. There are also several extinct taxa, commonly known as the Earth Sloth, and the sloth sid in the cartoon Ice Age is a ground sloth, and this prehistoric creature has from 2 to 5 claws.
The Earth Sloth in Ice Age has 4 paws.
The brown-throated three-toed sloth is about 50–60 cm long and covered with long, light brown or gray dense hairs. The front and back limbs are all three claws, the face is slightly white, and a thick black line around the eyes extends to the back of the head. This black streak, along with the slightly upturned corner of the sloth's mouth, forms the sloth's cute face, making the sloth look as if it has been smiling all the time. In contrast, the two-toed sloth is slightly inferior, the snout protrudes from the corner of the mouth is not obvious, there is no dark circles, and it looks like a ferret.
The three-toed sloth looked back and smiled. Image: Flickr
The two-toed sloth does not smile. Image: Flickr
The English name sloth, the word has been used since the 12th century to describe "laziness", and derived from the adjective of slow, which later became one of the "Seven Deadly Sins" in Catholic doctrine. The Portuguese in the 17th century discovered this ultra-slow animal in South America and used the term to refer to them. Sloths really live up to this name, their slow movement has reached an amazing realm, usually their movement speed is about five centimeters per second, and at extreme speed, it is about 4 meters per minute. We often use "turtle speed" to describe slow speed, in fact, some turtles can really be regarded as flash compared with sloths.
you...... very...... urgent...... Do you... want...... No...... want...... listen...... piece...... laugh...... speech...... yes...... Ha...... Ha...... Ha...... Ha. Image: Movie "Zootopia"
Since laziness is the name and slowness is the attitude of life, why are they so lazy and so slow?
Am I slow? Drawing: Wing wolf elang
The staple food of sloths is the leaves of many kinds of trees in the tropical rainforest, the leaves have more fiber and less energy, and how to save energy is the top priority of sloths. The first is to "eat more and pull less". Sloths have a large stomach capacity, a healthy sloth when full, the stomach can account for two-thirds of the body weight, there are symbiotic bacteria in the stomach can help break down food. Digesting these foods takes more than a month, excreting on average once a week, more frequently than some constipated humans.
Eat more, pull less, nutrition can be absorbed well. Image: wiki
Because sloths only get just enough energy to sustain themselves, they have to be careful elsewhere, for example, to move slowly. But the Rainforest of South America is a murderous place, pythons, jaguars and other high-level monster predators emerge in an endless stream, some small animals such as monkeys have evolved super high agility to avoid hunting, and slow-moving sloths are no different from meat on the chopping board; fortunately, sloths have a natural camouflage suit, and sloths in the wild generally look green, because their hair is covered with algae plants, just like the water in the fish tank has not changed for a long time to cause the water to turn green. This layer of green algae, combined with the sloth's slow nature, allows them to blend into the rainforest green environment, reducing the chances of being spotted by its greatest predator, the horned eagle.
If you want to live a good life, you must have a little green on your body. Image: Johner images-alamy
Horned Eagle: I specialize in all kinds of laziness. Image: Flickr
In fact, sloth hair is a vibrant world, in addition to feeding algae growth, there are fungi, beetles, cockroaches, moths and other creatures in it, such as the butterfly of the moth family cryptoses choloepi, also known as snail moth, adults inhabit the sloth, and when the sloths defecate every Monday, they lay eggs on the poop, and the larvae are in it until they feather and fly back to the sloth.
I seem to have something on my head. Image: carmenohio.deviantart.com
Sloths also have a unique job in frugal energy, if ordinary people are hanging upside down like sloths, the internal organs will squeeze down on the lungs, so it is inevitable that it is a little difficult to breathe, and it is necessary to know that breathing is also energy-consuming. The sloth's internal organs have more fibrous tissue, which firmly fix the liver, stomach and kidneys on the lower bones, so that when the sloth is hanging upside down, these internal organs will not hang down and compress the lungs, and there is no need to spend extra energy to breathe hard.
Sloth: This is a position I can hang for a year. Image: worldwildlife.org
Although sloths' biggest natural enemies in the wild are raptors, raptors do not cause a sharp decline in sloth numbers. In fact, the biggest crisis facing sloths is human activity, and the Amazon jungle is like a piece of fat, attracting people to flock to plunder forest resources. Overexploitation of rainforests can destroy habitats where wildlife depends, and strictly arboreal sloths can be wiped out. Among the 6 species of sloths in the suborder sloth, the mane three-toed sloth is vulnerable, the dwarf three-toed sloth with less than 80 is extremely dangerous, and the other 4 are temporarily low-risk; but the development of rainforests by humans has increased unabated. The animated rio adventure 2 shows us the tip of the iceberg of south America's wildlife habitat crisis, and it would be a shame years later if people could only see these South American star animals in similar movies.
We don't want sloths to be left with only such video recordings after a few years. Image: Rio Adventure 2
The copyright of this article belongs to the fruit shell network (guokr.com), welcome to forward, prohibit reprinting.
Please contact the [email protected] if needed