Panama's "Monster"
In September 2009, near the Blue Mountains of Panama, a group of teenagers discovered a cave while playing. As soon as they got into the cave, a hairless monster that seemed to be made of rubber rushed towards them. In order to defend themselves, several children beat the monster to death with sticks they carried and threw it into a puddle under the cliff.
After a while, the frightened children finally calmed down. They returned to the original place, took pictures of the monster, and sent it to the newspaper.
Some British tabloids compared it to "Gollum" in the movie "The Lord of the Rings", with a human-like appearance. After the photo spread on the Internet, people speculated a lot. Some people thought it was a rare animal that was thought to be extinct long ago. Others thought it was just a hairless dead dog. Some even thought it might have been left behind by aliens. Alien pets.
This incident certainly attracted the attention of biologists. British paleontologist Darren Naish expressed doubts about the authenticity of the stories of several teenagers and pointed out that the body should belong to sloth . In the teenagers It was already dead when it was found. The body lost its hair after being soaked in water for a period of time, which is why it looked so horrifying. In 1996, a similar headless carcass of an unknown animal appeared in Costa Rica, and subsequent inspection proved that it was also a sloth.
Sloths mainly live in the tropical rainforests of South America. They are more numerous in Costa Rica, and Panama borders Costa Rica. Therefore, the speculation that the "Panamanian monster" is a sloth is quite credible.
Sloths are like this in our usual impression. Not only do they have long hair, but they are also covered with green algae lichen and other plants. It makes the sloth look like it has had its hair dyed. No wonder people don’t recognize it. come out.
Only moves for a few hours a day, and does not move as much as possible.
Sloths spend a lot of time sleeping every day. It is said that they sleep for 15-18 hours a day. Sleeping under a tree is definitely very dangerous. Predators in the jungle Eaters definitely don't mind having a "buffet" while the sloth sleeps, so the sloth simply made a decision - sleep in a tree! In order to sleep in the tree, the sloth's front claws have continuously evolved and become what they are today. Its curved claws can grow to a full 10-14 cm in length. Even the claws of an adult tiger are only 5-8 cm. Half a sloth. It is said that sloths can use these claws to hang on branches even after they have died.
Why do sloths sleep for so long every day? Because his energy intake is too low. Sloths are omnivores. Although they will also eat some insects, their main food is leaves, buds, and fruits. After all, leaves cannot run away...
In order to eat leaves, sloths have A complex, large, and slow-moving stomach with four stomach chambers that function as fermentation chambers similar to those of a cow's stomach. Of course, this process is also extremely slow. A sloth can eat about 60 grams of leaves a day, which is equivalent to an egg. The digestion process of general ruminants is measured in hours, but sloths increase the energy absorption rate and the digestion process can last up to a month. It is only through this long digestion process that sloths can obtain enough energy for survival from leaves.
Still in order to eat leaves, the sloth also has a long tongue that can extend 25-30 centimeters, which is nearly half of its own body length! In order to eat leaves in a wider range, it can twist its head like an owl. For this reason, it also grows 8-9 vertebrae, while the vertebrae of mammals usually have 7 vertebrae.
Crazy energy conservation, even leading to death
Even so, the energy provided by the leaves is still not enough, so what should I do? There is only "sparing one's clothes and food". In order to save energy, sloths have gone to the extreme. Its muscles are only half that of animals of the same size. It looks big, but it is actually covered with hair.Sloths have also evolved a layer of connective tissue specifically on their internal organs, allowing their internal organs to hang on their ribs. This point once confused scientists. What is the meaning of this thing? Later studies found that because sloths hang upside down for a long time, without this layer of connective tissue, they will consume 7%-13% more energy when breathing.
In order to save energy, the sloth even changed its body temperature system. The body temperature of sloths is very low and can fluctuate between 25°C and 35°C. Low body temperature causes them many problems and is even life-threatening. For example, their metabolism is very slow, only half that of animals of similar size, which is a big reason why they look slow. When the rainforest ushered in a long rainy season, and the female sloth was in the lactation period, her body temperature would be even lower, so that the bacteria in her stomach were no longer active, making it difficult to help digest leaves. Filled with leaves, he died of hunger.
Hygiene-loving sloths, half of them die from going to the toilet
Sloths spend almost their entire lives in trees and rarely move on the ground. Their front paws and internal organs are so specialized that moving on the ground becomes a burden. , although it has hind limbs, it cannot walk. It relies entirely on its front paws to drag itself, and its moving speed on the ground is only 2 meters per minute! But even so, there are still times when sloths come down from trees, even risking their lives, to go to the toilet!
Animals have no moral values, so animals on trees, such as koalas, are "dropped objects from high altitudes." Sloths, on the other hand, will slowly climb down from the tree, use their short tails to dig a hole, bury it after going to the toilet, and then spend the same amount of time climbing back up the tree. The whole process takes about 6 hours. . According to statistics, more than half of the sloths that died accidentally died trying to go to the toilet.
Scientists say that there are many green algae in the hair of the sloth. Green algae also need nutrients to survive. Where do the nutrients come from? Then we have to talk about a kind of insect on sloths-the sloth moth. When the sloth goes down the tree to defecate, the sloth moth will go to the feces and lay eggs. When the sloth comes down the tree again, the developed sloth moth will jump back to the sloth with the nutrients needed by the green algae. After the green algae grows, it will turn into the camouflage color of the sloth. Sometimes, the sloth will eat the green algae on its body to replenish energy. There is such a miniature "ecological cycle" hidden in the sloth's small body. It can only be said that nature is full of wonders.
"Travel far away" for mating
Sloths are solitary animals, but there must be time for mating, right? But their movements are too slow, so sloths also have a strange habit and a special ability.
In tropical rainforests, leaves are an abundant source of food. In one acre of land, there are about two hundred kinds of trees and vines, but each sloth only eats some of the leaves. Different sloths eat different foods, which avoids the possibility of food differences. Due to the confrontation caused by competition, sloths can also live in close proximity. Furthermore, this foraging habit is passed down from female sloths to their offspring, including gut bacteria that are specifically designed to digest these leaves.
Although we live close by, we still have to save energy if we can. The breeding season of sloths is usually from August to October, which is when the rainy season arrives. Sloths will jump into the river and use the flooded river water during the rainy season to move "long distances" - their hair and stomach bags are like The swimming ring also provides them with buoyancy, and they have fewer muscles than other animals to reduce the burden. The combination of these two points makes them good swimmers, because they look weird when they get wet, and their necks can be twisted behind their backs to land on the beach. It will be difficult to move in the future, and its characteristics are quite similar to the legendary "water monkey", and it is often mistaken for "water monkey" or " water ghost ".
Sloth emerging from the water
Sloth’s survival secrets
Many people have doubts, how do sloths survive in nature with such habits? In fact, most of the reasons exist as mentioned in the previous article.The sloth only eats leaves to avoid fights with other animals. The green algae on its hair provide it with a protective color, and the dense hair can defend it from the bites of small and medium-sized animals. It spends almost its entire life in trees, avoiding trees. These large predators use their huge claws not only to climb trees, but also as a means of defense. In addition, its meat is not tasty, it has very little muscle mass, and 2/3 of its body weight is made up of its stomach and leaves to be digested. Few predators are willing to do the thankless task of hunting sloths.
Nature is cruel and merciless, but the sloth has made full use of every characteristic of itself, turned everything into a force for survival, and found its place in nature.
References
"The Sloth Family: More than just "Chronics" on the Trees" Jin Wenchi. "Fossils", 2022
"Sloths, the ultimate "lazy cancer" patient" KBree " Pet World ", 2015
" Why do sloths "travel hard" to defecate?" " Nature Exploration ", 2014
"Sloth - an animal that fully absorbs and saves energy" Tang Jing. "Nature", 1986
