When I select an animal to dedicate a post or two towards, I like to think I’m relatively well-versed in the chosen animal’s general traits and information. Sometimes this is true, and other times, my assumptions are entirely false, and my post yesterday proved this, specifically the bit about sloths and their bowel habits. That one really threw me for a loop.
Today, we will continue our chat about these majestic beasts, and again, this information comes from slothconservation.org.
“4. Sloths are blind in bright daylight
“They have a very rare condition called rod monochromacy, which means that they completely lack cone cells in their eyes. As a result, sloth eyes are colour-blind. They can only see poorly in dim light, and are completely blind in bright daylight. Thankfully, sloths compensate for such poor vision by having a phenomenal sense of smell and a great spatial memory! Their bad eyesight also plays a key role in the sloths slowness; you can’t run around in the trees if you can’t see where you are going!
“5. They are faster in water than on land
“Although they spend most of their time in the trees, sloths are surprisingly good swimmers. Sloths can swim through water three times faster than they can move on the ground! Three-fingered sloths have two more neck vertebrae than any other mammal. This allows them to turn their heads through 270° and effortlessly keep their nose above water when swimming.
“6. It takes sloths 30 days to digest a leaf
“Sloths have the lowest metabolic rate of any mammal, which means that it takes them a long time to digest anything. They have an incredibly large and permanently full four-chambered stomach, which can account for up to 30% of their body mass. In two-fingered sloths, this over-sized stomach is supported by 46 ribs (23 pairs) which is more than any other mammal!” the web page states.
Come back tomorrow for more.
Photo by Sophia Müller on Unsplash
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