WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Why Are Sloths' Toilet Habits So Dangerous?

0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:07.720
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff.

0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.920
<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Vogelbomb, and today's episode is a classic from

0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:14.120
<v Speaker 1>the Vault. In this one, we get into the yes,

0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:19.040
<v Speaker 1>gross but fascinating world of sloths toilet habits, and why

0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.319
<v Speaker 1>pooping is one of the most dangerous things these animals do.

0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:28.080
<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbomb. Here. Sloths are known for

0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.240
<v Speaker 1>their incredibly slow moving natures, but it turns out that

0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:35.080
<v Speaker 1>such sluggishness also carries over into their bathroom habits, so

0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.720
<v Speaker 1>much so that they only defecate every five to seven

0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.520
<v Speaker 1>days on average, and actually lose up to one third

0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:43.320
<v Speaker 1>of their body weight in a single movement. The stool

0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:45.839
<v Speaker 1>is pushed out in one fell swoop, so impressive that

0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:50.360
<v Speaker 1>horrified and or transfixed bystanders can watch the animal's aptomen shrink.

0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.400
<v Speaker 1>We spoke via email with Sarah Kennedy, co founder of

0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:58.800
<v Speaker 1>the Sloth Conservation Foundation based in the United Kingdom. She said,

0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:01.600
<v Speaker 1>if you've ever seen a sloth pooh, you could only

0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.320
<v Speaker 1>ever describe it as pure bliss. They tip their heads

0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:09.679
<v Speaker 1>back and smile, but the weak, long delay between bowel

0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:13.120
<v Speaker 1>movements is not even the strangest thing about sloth pooping habits.

0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.199
<v Speaker 1>You see, sloths are arboreal creatures, which means they live, work,

0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.759
<v Speaker 1>and play high up in the trees. Their chosen habitats

0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.640
<v Speaker 1>are the rain and cloud forests of Central and South America.

0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.560
<v Speaker 1>Most other arboreal animals, like monkeys, poop from the trees,

0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.479
<v Speaker 1>but not sloths. Instead, they make a slow descent from

0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:33.760
<v Speaker 1>the canopy to do their business at the base of

0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.360
<v Speaker 1>the trees. And this despite the fact that it's quite perilous.

0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:40.760
<v Speaker 1>Kennedy said, this behavior puts them threat to a lot

0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.280
<v Speaker 1>of predators like jungle cats, and wastes a lot of

0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.000
<v Speaker 1>their precious energy, which they don't have much of. It

0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.680
<v Speaker 1>turns out that more than half of all sloth deaths

0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.160
<v Speaker 1>occur during potty time, when these creatures are so vulnerable

0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:58.400
<v Speaker 1>to predators. The process comes at a serious price. Zoologist

0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.600
<v Speaker 1>and Sloth Conservation Foundation and founder Becky Cliff wrote in

0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:05.000
<v Speaker 1>a blog post a sloth's entire lifestyle is based around

0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.680
<v Speaker 1>avoiding detection and using as little energy as possible. It

0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.600
<v Speaker 1>takes a sloth an entire month to digest just one leaf,

0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.240
<v Speaker 1>meaning they don't have much wiggle room when it comes

0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.840
<v Speaker 1>to expending energy. The laborious process of going up and

0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.280
<v Speaker 1>down the tree is compounded by the actual pooping process.

0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:24.880
<v Speaker 1>Sloths do a little dance at the base of the

0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.280
<v Speaker 1>tree to create a hole for the feces, and then

0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:29.839
<v Speaker 1>shake their hind quarters once more to cover it up.

0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:34.440
<v Speaker 1>This process requires you guessed it, plenty of precious energy.

0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:37.640
<v Speaker 1>A lot of theories have been put forth about why

0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.200
<v Speaker 1>sloths feel the need to expend so much effort and

0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:44.079
<v Speaker 1>expose themselves to so much danger just to toilet. One

0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.240
<v Speaker 1>theory is that sloth moths, which live in sloth hair,

0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.400
<v Speaker 1>actually lay their eggs in the feces during the long

0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.000
<v Speaker 1>poop process. Then, once they hatch and mature in their

0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:57.080
<v Speaker 1>carefully prepared environment, they fly up to take residence in

0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.920
<v Speaker 1>the host sloth's fur. A Many experts are skeptical of

0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.280
<v Speaker 1>this explanation because the sloths don't particularly benefit from the

0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.399
<v Speaker 1>behavior and nature isn't generally known for its selfless generosity.

0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.520
<v Speaker 1>More likely, but as yet unproven, is that the strange

0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.000
<v Speaker 1>behavior comes back to reproduction, as it so often does

0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:20.360
<v Speaker 1>when living things are involved. Kennedy explained the main reason

0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.560
<v Speaker 1>is probably so that other sloths can find them, particularly

0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.200
<v Speaker 1>males looking for females. Usually this loss come down every

0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:29.520
<v Speaker 1>five to seven days, but when females are in heat

0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.280
<v Speaker 1>it's every day, so it's likely to be mostly to

0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.839
<v Speaker 1>do with reproduction. Indeed, it appears at sloth poop says

0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.200
<v Speaker 1>a lot more about the animal than merely what they've

0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:43.040
<v Speaker 1>been gnaching on. Cliff wrote, pheromones present in the urinine

0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.720
<v Speaker 1>feces can provide a lot of important information about the

0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.400
<v Speaker 1>individual animal. If the sloths just let everything go from

0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:52.800
<v Speaker 1>the canopy, these messages would be easily lost. We have

0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.040
<v Speaker 1>heaps of data showing some really interesting patterns between a

0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:01.040
<v Speaker 1>female's estracycle and the patterns of defecation. We'll be waiting

0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.280
<v Speaker 1>patiently for the answer to this mystery, because if observing

0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:14.640
<v Speaker 1>slots teaches anything it's patience. Today's episode is based on

0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.400
<v Speaker 1>the article Sloth's only poop once a week, but they

0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:19.839
<v Speaker 1>make it a good one on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written

0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:22.920
<v Speaker 1>by Leah Hoyt. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in

0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.040
<v Speaker 1>partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.

0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.560
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.560
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,