Three toed sloths spend most of their life in the safety of a tree, and the slow moving creatures are host to an ecosystem of moths and algae. But to defecate, they leave the tree once a week to visit the forest floor, where they are more vulnerable to attack from predators.
Three toed sloths spend most of their life in the safety of a tree, and the slow moving creatures are host to an ecosystem of moths and algae.
But to defecate, they leave the tree once a week to visit the forest floor, where they are more vulnerable to attack from predators.
Fifty percent of three toed sloth deaths reportedly occur on the ground while they are defecating.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have published a study that probes the question of why sloths risk their lives to poop on the ground, and how it is related to the other organisms that live on a sloth.
Moths lay their eggs in sloth feces, which provide nutrients for the moth larvae, before they find a host sloth.
The moths in turn help make more algae grow on the sloth’s fur, which may provide the sloth with nutrients, although how those nutrients are absorbed remains a mystery.
The theory from researchers is that the symbiotic relationship between all three parties might be the reason behind sloths risking their lives to relieve themselves on the ground.
A related species of two toed sloths are not host to the moths and are less inclined to travel to the ground to poop.
