WEBVTT - How Sloths Work 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:04.800 Attention world. If you can make it to America, then 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:07.520 come see us. We are going out on the road 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.119 for s Y s K Live again, and we are 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:13.960 going to start the whole thing off in Chicago on July, 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:16.880 that's right. And if you can't make it to America, 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.279 maybe make it to Canada, because we're gonna be in 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.360 Toronto in the next night and Fourth Music Hall. Then 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:24.120 in August, we're gonna do a couple of dates at 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.560 the Wilburn Boston in October twenty nine, in Portland Mainz 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:31.080 Lovely State Theater on August, and then we're going to 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:33.680 be heading down to Florida. We're gonna be at Plaza 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.000 Live on October nine, and then the next night we're 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.280 going to be in New Orleans at the Civic Theater. 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:41.360 That's right, and then we're gonna round it out in 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:45.919 Brooklyn October five at the Bellhouse. Yep, So come see us. 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.680 You can get tickets and info at s Y s 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.720 K live dot com. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, 0:00:52.960 --> 0:01:01.520 a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works? Hey, 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.200 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:10.399 Chuck Bryant, There's guest producer Josh t over there thinking 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:14.120 about the number twenty three, just sitting there thinking about 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:19.640 until that's right, I forgot that. Yeah, he's in Illuminati 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.679 stuff if I remember correctly. So he's also look look 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:25.399 at this guy. He is so good, Chuck. He knows 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:27.240 to just sit there and keep quiet, even though he's 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.040 dying inside right now to talk about the number twenty three. 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.840 Uh if I had just pulled out some random show 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.800 from like our archive from years ago, could you see 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.400 who the producer was? Oh? I don't know, let's let's 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:43.160 give it a try. Um geez, Now I have to 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.120 think of a show that we did years ago. Uh. Well, 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.000 since we're doing an animal show today, the only I 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:52.680 can think of his animals elephants, Jarny that long ago, 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:57.040 probably Jerry All, how about this? Can you name any 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.240 shows that other guest producers were on? I'll the top 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:06.200 of your head. Um, No, this game turns so lame 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:09.359 so fast. I feel like we can we Well, Matt 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:11.760 Frederick's too busy these days. But we can't have Matt 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.880 anymore in here, because all Matt would do is sit 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.000 there and like not his head like huh yeah, yeah, 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:21.959 either that or his hands would be clasped together with 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.200 this look of sheer joy on his face just to 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.880 hear us talk. It was great, It made it. It It 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.240 made recording that much better. In the old days, Matt's 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.120 older and more cynical. Now he doesn't care anymore about us. Right, 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:37.720 He's true released into the forest like a baby sloth, right, 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.280 which is good. That's what you want to do with 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:42.720 either Matt Frederick or a baby sloth. You don't want 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:46.040 to keep them in captivity because sloths don't do very 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.800 well in captivity. Matt does okay in captivity, he's fine, 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.360 but a sloth not nearly as well as what Matt 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.400 Frederick can do it captivity. Uh. Yeah, and you were 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:58.080 watching just before we recorded. Everyone should know Josh was 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:04.600 watching the twenty eight million view YouTube video of Kristen Bell. Uh. 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.760 Can we call her friend of the show? Sure? I 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.080 mean she's probably not going to write in to object 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.040 to it, so yeah, we could. We could call her that. 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.280 She's the stuff you should know listener or has been 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.640 over the years as us. Her husband Mr Dak Shepherd, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.800 who was also a movie Crush guest um and he 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.960 has his own podcast to Armchair expert. Yeah, he's crushing 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.240 it right out of the games. Those are good. Good podcasts, actually, 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.320 don't know if you listen to this are good. So 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.560 she very famously he brought her a sloth on her 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.560 birthday and she went on Ellen and they showed video 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.440 and it's still just one of the great videos you 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.400 can ever watch. It is. It's very sweet. She's like 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:47.480 having a meltdown and fully fully melting down. Yeah, like crying, 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.920 like sobbing because she's so excited that there's a sloth 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:54.800 in her house, because this is something she's she's wanted 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:56.880 to meet a sloth like for her whole life and 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.920 now she gets to. Yeah. And I watched it again 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.920 today too, because after doing this research, I was like, 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.240 wait a minute, was she holding a sloth because that's 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.680 not good? And uh, it showed a picture and she's not. 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:14.000 The sloth is on its little perch and she's very 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.320 respectfully next to the sloth, exactly how it should be. 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:22.520 If there's any reason that that kept Kristen Bell from 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:26.280 being America's Sweetheart, which I can't think of one that 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.359 that erased it right there, just knowing how to be 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:31.840 around a sloth when you have meltdowns at the idea 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.200 of being around a slot that's that's some serious self 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:38.000 control and for the benefit of the animal, that's great stuff. Yeah, 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:41.880 not touching the animal and uh literally offering for me 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:46.560 to change my daughter's diaper in her restaurant booth. Yeah, 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.320 that's right, because she said the bathroom was dirty. She's 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:54.960 a class act. Class act. So, Charles, you mentioned um elephants. 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:58.280 We did an elephant episode and that that it's similar 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:00.400 to the to the whole sloth thing. Like you see 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.080 a sloth, especially if you see a sloth in captivity 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.200 at a zoo or something like that, you're like, well, 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.039 I want to carry it around like a baby or 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:09.719 something like that. It's a sloth. It's one of the 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:11.919 cutest things on the planet. But you don't want to 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:16.240 do that. Slous don't really deal with captivity very well. 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.320 Although they can live way longer in captivity, they're not 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.920 necessarily happy. But I was thinking one of the things, 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:25.000 one of the reasons why people seem to think that 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.160 they are happy or would want to be picked up 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.719 is because, at least among one type of sloth, they're 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:35.040 always smiling. They're smiling, which makes them super cute. They 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.960 also have a mullet. That's the the three toad Brady 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.400 Puss sloth Um. They have a mullet and they are 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:44.840 always smiling. But if you look, it's just the coloring 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:48.200 on their face that happens to resemble a smile there there. 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:51.719 They have so little muscle mass that they don't have 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:55.040 the capability of smiling making their face smile. It's just 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.919 the colorings on their fur. Yeah, which is can be 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.320 very misleading to us dumb humans because they can be 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.560 scared or stressed out of their mind and it still 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.640 looks like they are just chilling and smiling. Right, Look 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:10.599 it smiling. It loves it when I juggle it with 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:15.800 two bowling balls in a flaming a flaming pitch fork. Oh, 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.000 I could come up with. I wondering where that was going. 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.880 Have you ever seen a flaming pitchfork? Is something only 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:27.400 in the Simpsons. So let's get into this because the 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:32.000 cuteness is just it's cute overload. When it comes to slows, 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:37.240 they are ridiculously cute. Um. Their whole vibe is just 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:42.320 you know, right up my alley at least sure not 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.320 that I'm lazy mellow and but well, you know me, 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:48.599 the real me isn't super mellow, but I like to 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:52.159 pretend to be sure, I strive to be You get 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:56.600 the sloth vibe. Yeah, it's it's an aspirational state, sloth nous. Yeah. 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.120 So I love. The very first sentence of this research 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:01.440 says they are highly successful, which kind of cracked me 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.039 up when I read it because I pictured slaws of 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:09.000 course in business suits, like running a company. Right, can 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:10.760 you hurry it up? I have no time for this. 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.680 But what that means is is that for a very 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:20.600 very very long time, slows generally have flourished in the world. Yeah, 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.480 they think that they probably evolved. Um. They're part of 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:29.920 a group or a family or some taxonomic designation called 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:35.440 um zenn athara and zenithara um are It's it's like 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:40.440 the weirdo group that's sloths and eaters. Um. I think 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:45.680 that's ardillos Sure, depending on whether you want to be 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.800 classy or not or sound tough. Sure, zen arthrow Okay, 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:56.280 I'll go with that. But it's sloths and eaters armadillos um. 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.840 Pretty much any odd um animal you can think of 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.200 would would fall into zan arthur what what what did 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:08.200 you say, zan Arthur Arthur. So they all kind of 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:13.400 formed together in isolation on what was once an island 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.520 South Americas as long back as eighty million years ago. 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:21.400 What yeh is an island? Yeah, you know, like the 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.480 whole continental drifts and all that stuff, and it decided 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.480 to make friends with Central America. Yeah, and and higher 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:29.840 sea levels that kind of thing. When the sea levels 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:32.200 got locked up in ice, or when a lot of 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.840 seawater got locked up in ice, the land bridge that 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:39.040 is Central America came along and said, hey, build some 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:44.719 zigarattes on me. So they are highly successful. Uh, they 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.400 are very slow moving, like everyone knows. Um, they are 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:52.520 in Central and South America. Still no surprise there. Um. 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:54.599 And like you said, there are two kinds there. The 0:08:54.679 --> 0:09:03.280 two toad, uh caleppus. I was going coleo Opus colo 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:07.800 opus colo opus rhymes bosephus. Okay, that's a good way 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.040 to remember it. Uh. And then the little tom Brady Puss, 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.000 which is the three toad. But it's a bit of 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:18.800 a misnomer because the two toad has three toes but 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:22.640 two fingers, right. That's how they're classified or separated from 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.199 one another. The two toad or the three toad right, 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.520 so um, And technically I read somewhere Chuck that they 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.839 actually don't have legs. There's a four armed creature. Was 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:36.480 that the designation four arms? Yeah, from what I saw, 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.520 But they really just pay attention to how many fingers 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.880 are on the four arms or the four limbs what 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:45.920 we would think of as their arms, their front arms, 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.920 but they're really all four arms. And the way that 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:53.760 I kept um the two separated, so two toed is 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:58.480 colo opus, three toad is Bradypuss, is that I thought 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.800 the Brady bunch has more kids, so that Brady has 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.520 more toes. And it's been working all day. Frankly, that's 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:10.520 pretty good. That's the second pneumonic device you've dropped in 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:12.720 the first like ten minutes of the show. Yeah, what 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.360 do you think You're doing? Great? Good as long as 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:19.720 it's working. So uh. The two toad guys and ladies, 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.600 they roam um as far as laws go, a pretty 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.200 great distance. Uh. They can forage and ranges up to 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.760 three d and fifty acres, whereas the three toad guys 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.360 they only have a range of about thirteen acres. And 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.240 then there's the cutest of all sloth, the pygmy sloth 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:40.160 that are just on one one little island off the 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:44.120 coast of Panama, right, and they're actually critically endangered as 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:49.839 far as they are so cute, it's ridiculous. But like, 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.679 as close as the sloths are, like, there's not that 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:56.160 many differences besides the number of toes on their four limbs. 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:58.920 Um that the fact that you know one has the 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.080 smile mark King's the three toad as the smile markings 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.960 and the mullet haircut. The other one looks like. Um, 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.479 there's a site called Slothville. It's a it's a conservation 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.119 site run by a woman named Lucy Cook and um, 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.760 she says that the two toad slaws look a bit 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.640 like a cross between a Wookie and a pig. And 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.760 I think she absolutely nailed it with that description, right, Yeah, 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:22.320 what does them look like? The little What was the 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:27.360 Christmas Special? What was Chewbacca's son? Oh man, if you 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:29.280 can remember that, Chuck, I'll buy you a case of 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.600 beer my head, put your phone down. I don't know, 0:11:32.840 --> 0:11:35.320 I can't remember, but that's sort of what it reminded 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:39.760 me of. Norman. I'm pretty sure it was Norman. Norman, 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:45.760 Norman Baca you right, I can't remember. I can't either. 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.880 I'm sure there's somebody out there. It's like you beer Josh, 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.720 I only said that I was making that offer to Chuck, 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.000 so Wookie to pig. That's a pretty good descriptor, right. 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:58.960 So my point is this, though um as as similar 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.079 as two toe sloss and three toad sloths seem, and 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:04.439 there are some differences, but really in the grand scheme 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.880 of things, there they seem a lot, a lot closer 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:12.280 than say, you know, a a dove and a sloth 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:19.040 flaming pitchfork in a slow um. But they're actually really separate. 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.200 They're not even they're multiple different species. They're not even 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:27.640 in the same genus. And for comparison, humans and chimps 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.640 are in the same genus. Two different types of sloths 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.720 aren't even in the same genus, so there's a big 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.120 distinction between the two and um. I looked up sloth News, 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.520 which is fast breaking strangely enough, but they they there's 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:43.600 a study that came out recently where they did some 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:49.120 molecular DNA studies on sloth um sloth evolution, and they 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.320 found that they may the two toad and the three 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:54.960 toad slots maybe even further separated and may have evolved 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.319 independently of one another, that they may be even more 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.560 distantly related than we than you think. So as similar 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.920 as they seem to be, they're actually pretty different. Although 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.679 they are really similar. It's a it's a weird fluke 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:12.520 of evolution all around. Yeah, Characteristically, I think they're fairly similar. Um, 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.200 the two toed variety are a little bit bigger, uh 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.280 and hang upside down a little bit more than the 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.280 three toed variety. Who you'll see those sitting upright sometimes 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.120 in trees. But I read somewhere that they slaus can 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.240 spend up the nine of their life upside down, yea, 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.560 which is amazing. They do everything upside down, They mate 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.760 upside down, they give birth upside down, they do almost 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.400 everything that they do upside down hanging and and did 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.360 you say, was the two toad that spend more of 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.360 their life upside down than the three to two toad? 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.959 A little bit more hang time, right, So that's one difference. 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:47.959 But even still, it's not like the three toad or 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.280 just averse to being upside down. I think both of 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:53.000 them spend so much time upside down that the part 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.480 of their hair rather than being on their backs or 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.800 their head the top of their head like ours is um, 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.480 it's on their bellies because their upside down so much 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.240 that that's how gravity is has forced their to part 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:08.800 just like shimp, Just like an upside down shimp. Boy 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:13.000 ships hair. Wow, it was something, it was something the 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:16.760 original butt cut. Yeah it was, wasn't it? Yea. So 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:20.400 the Brady puss also has an extra neck vertebrae. So 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:23.760 if you've ever seen a sloth uh seemingly turn its 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.960 head three hundred and sixty degrees, it's because they can 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.640 turn their head about two d seventy degrees and have 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.760 almost a three hundred sixty degree you know, counting their 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:40.560 peripheral vision range of sight. Yes, yes, but without that 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.560 is that is strictly from moving their head. They actually 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.680 again they lack so much muscle mass and tissue that 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.400 they don't have the muscles to move their eyeballs in 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.320 their in their heads, so when they look around, they 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:55.640 have to move their whole head. But it has helped 0:14:55.640 --> 0:15:00.960 out for sure, especially after a hard night on other day. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:04.400 But they they they the fact that they have that 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.280 extra vertebrae helps them look around more. But it's just 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.880 one more thing that makes them an extraordinarily unusual creature 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:16.240 because only sloths and manatees are are mammals that have 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:19.880 more than seven vertebrae. Every other mammal on the planet 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:22.880 has seven vertebrae, and sloss the manatees are the only 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.760 two that don't. Manatees a mammal. Yeah right, yeah, they 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.040 breathe there. They just spend a lot of time in water. 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.520 They were probably some sort of like wolf for bear 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:35.360 or something that eventually took to water. Well, speaking of 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.840 bears and water, uh, Slaus are really good swimmers. Um. 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.040 If you look up a YouTube video of slow swimming, 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:45.400 it's actually they can kind of get around, um and 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.080 are somewhat graceful in the water. They can hold their 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.600 breath for up to forty minutes, and in order to 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:53.520 do so, they can cut their heart rate by two 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:57.920 thirds and their metabolism down, which is like they already 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.600 I mean, we'll get into their metabolism later, but that's 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.000 saying something. If they can cut their metabolism down even 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:07.200 more on purpose, yeah for real, because the the sloth 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:11.200 metabolism is a thing to to behold in your mind. 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.200 It's like, um, yeah, we'll get to it in a 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:17.360 little bit, but just just know that I'm excited to 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.840 talk about sloth metabolism, okay. Uh. And then I mentioned 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.600 speaking of bears. Uh. They their original predecessor back in 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.120 the day was something called a giant ground sloth or 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:32.760 a megatherium. And if you look at this thing, it 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.880 looks sort of like a bear. Um its face is 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:37.560 a little bit different, but it kind of looks like 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:40.240 a just a big giant brown bear. It looked like 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.600 a giant beaver to me without the tail. I really 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.680 that's I mean, that's what I thought. Well, beaver with 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:48.360 out of tail is really just a tiny bear with 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:51.040 big teeth. I guess so, I guess so. But they 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:54.120 found that just from examining its bones, they found that 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:58.040 it could walk on um its back legs, which makes 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:02.880 it the largest bipedal land mammal that ever lived, which 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.360 is pretty cool. And there was a sloth ancestor amazing, 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:08.959 and we used to eat him to chuck. We found 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.120 um tool marks on some of the bones, and they think, well, 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.240 humans probably hunted it to extinction. Yeah, tuk took, I 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.600 guess yeah. Although we've determined he was in the anderth 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:23.200 all right, right, he's been designated officially as a neandertal. Uh, 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.760 shall we take a break. I think it's high time. Man. 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:31.160 All right, this is our slowest episode ever and we'll 0:17:31.200 --> 0:18:01.160 be right back. So before we get going on more 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.679 real sloth stuff, I'm assuming you have not seen the 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:11.240 movie Zootopia or have you. I don't think kids movie, No, no, 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.480 I haven't. There's a there's a sloth scene where that's 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:17.720 very very funny, and in fact, they made that a 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.959 very big part of the original movie trailer where these 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.960 uh animals are in a hurry to find out some 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.920 information from the d m V. And so they go 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.399 to the d m V. And of course, as you know, 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.280 sort of an in joke to anyone has ever been 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:33.639 at the d m V, which is notably slow, they 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.720 had a sloth that was it was completely run by sloths, 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:39.639 and there's just this one great scene where they go 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.159 up and try to get information from the sloth and 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.080 they really do it right, they take their time, and uh, 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.760 it's funny for kids and adults are like highly recommend 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:52.120 it is, and I mean like it's probably fairly accurate 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:57.159 because sloths, you know, everybody knows they're super super slow. 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:01.760 It's not it's not really in overstatement or exaggeration. They 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:06.720 genuinely are extremely slow. I saw that they move on 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.359 the ground, which is when they move about the fastest 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:13.160 aside from swimming, is something like half a kilometer per 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.840 hour at top speed. And that they'll they'll move maybe 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:21.680 six to eight feet up a tree in a minute. 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.280 And these things are are made to climb trees. And 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:28.919 that's how fast, or I should say that's how slow 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:34.080 they move. Yeah, they're The actual term sloth um dates 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:38.000 back to the twelfth century in Spain, or in the 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:43.280 Spanish language at least, they were called los petasosos, which 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:47.000 translates to the lazies, which is hysterical because Emily and 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:51.320 I often call animals lazies. Look at those lazies because 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:55.560 pets are lazy. Sure, yeah, they're not sloth lazy though, no, 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.400 they're not sloth lazy. But that literally translates into the lazies. 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:02.920 And then when the Spanish explorers started talking about the lazies, 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:05.639 it was translated into the word sloth in English and 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:09.920 about the I guess early seventeenth century, yeah, yeah, because 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.560 it was it was a cleric I believe. Who was like, oh, well, 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.119 we don't talk about laziness. We talked about sloth because 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.720 it's a one of the seven deadly sins. Now, it's 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:23.040 really kind of a down word when it's used as 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.800 a as an insult, for sure, you know, but it's 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:28.639 like the slaughter of the best. So I don't know. 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:30.960 I like it, I know, But at the same time, 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:33.919 it's like if somebody calls you slothful, you know that 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:38.119 they walked right past lazy, like they saw it and said, no, 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:40.880 lazy is not enough. I really want to drive home 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:43.879 how much I disdain your laziness. Yeah, that that is 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:45.960 a good descriptor. Like if someone at work as slow 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.159 as something and you describe them as slothful instead of 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.880 just slow, right, because you're you're passing judgment on them 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.320 as well, like like biblical style judgment, like you're going 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.639 to hell, that's how slow you you took and getting 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:05.600 this TPS report to me. Uh two toad sloths are omnivorous, 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:09.760 so they can eat animals. Um. I didn't see where 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:12.000 they do that a lot. They mainly still eat fruits 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.920 and leaves and twigs and things, um, But they will 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:18.800 eat birds sometimes in lizards, I would imagine they have 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:22.679 to be wounded or something, because it's not like they 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:25.880 I mean, surely they don't hunt. They're not fast enough, right, 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.040 they're Yeah, they're not snatching a bird out of the 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.280 air or something like that. They're not going after humming birds. 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.920 It would have to be like maybe a recently killed 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.240 or a an injured bird. And man, if you're an 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:40.760 injured bird in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America, 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:43.639 I'm guessing the last thing you want to see is 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:48.000 a hungry to toad sloth slowly coming at you, because 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:49.920 you know it's going to take a really long time 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.200 for it to eat you alive. There's a funny YouTube 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:58.840 video actually called when a Sloth Chases You. It's just 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:01.920 just a sloth on the ground, like set to horror music. 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:08.320 So I watched a lot of sloth videos. There's well, 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:10.199 there's a lot of good ones out there. I I 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:14.280 recommend looking up sloth fight. Do you think it'd be 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:16.879 sad or disturbing? But there's a bunch of different videos 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.440 and it's actually it's in the grand sloth style. It's 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:26.600 really cute. When sloth's fight, Yeah, fight, fight, fight like 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:29.520 they they look like they're taking it seriously and they're 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:32.639 all agitated. But it's impossible for us to take the 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:35.959 sloth fight seriously. It's just too cute and they're just 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:40.679 too incompetent at fighting. Oh dear, the three toad guys, 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:44.600 they are very much more picky eaters, and they eat 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:48.560 um generally. They these toxic leaves from just a few trees, 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:52.520 and they they hang around, like if they find a 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:54.320 good tree that they like, they will hang around that 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.399 tree for a long long time. Yeah, there's apparently they 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:01.160 know that some three toad sloths will inhabit the same 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:04.080 tree for their whole life. It's it's rare, it's unusual, 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:08.280 but even still, I mean, their entire range usually doesn't 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:12.840 extend over like thirteen acres or five and a half hectares, right, Like, 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:17.159 it's a very small limited area that a sloth, a 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:20.879 three toad sloth in particular, what will inhabit their whole life. Right, 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:22.920 I think we can talk about the metabolism now since 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:26.359 we're eating. Yes, I'm so happy, so I know what 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:28.560 the I know what you're effect of the show probably 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:31.040 has to just go ahead. There's like eight in here, 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:37.080 So the reason slots move so slowly is because in part, 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:41.920 they metabolize so slowly. Like when you when you metabolize, 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:46.200 you're converting like food into energy, right, and you're doing 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:48.400 all sorts of stuff with that. You're moving your muscles, 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:52.439 you're you're walking, you're laughing, you're talking, you're recording a podcast, 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:56.879 you're digesting food. And slots are mammals, so they do 0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:03.199 have this metabolism that's similar to um any other mammal metasism, metabolism, 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:07.800 it's just way slower and therefore it's way weaker. Like 0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:11.560 the human metabolism puts out about eighty watts of energy 0:24:11.800 --> 0:24:16.240 at any given time, Sloths put out less than four watts. 0:24:16.640 --> 0:24:21.120 It's just extraordinarily slow, and even compared to humans are 0:24:21.160 --> 0:24:25.000 compared to other animals there same size, they they metabolize 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:27.960 things way more slowly. So the reason that they move 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:32.560 so slowly is because they literally don't have the energy 0:24:32.680 --> 0:24:36.359 to move much faster. Yeah, it's uh, it takes a 0:24:36.400 --> 0:24:40.520 whole month to digest a meal. Um, they have to 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:43.080 do it. That's slow. If they would digest faster, it 0:24:43.080 --> 0:24:47.240 could poison themselves because they're eating these toxic leaves they 0:24:47.240 --> 0:24:50.880 don't have incisors, so they they trim these leaves down. 0:24:50.920 --> 0:24:55.119 They smack their little lips together and trim these leaves down. Uh. 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:57.240 And again, I hate to say the word cute again, 0:24:57.720 --> 0:25:00.320 but it's pretty adorable to see a little sloth chewing 0:25:00.359 --> 0:25:03.520 on a leaf. Yeah. But imagine you're a wounded bird 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:06.600 and a toothless sloth is eating you to death. Yeah, 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:09.760 I imagine it's not a quick a quick death. No, 0:25:10.080 --> 0:25:13.919 you get gummed to death. Uh. And I think the 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:17.920 fact of the show probably is this whole um, the 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:21.600 whole farting business. Sure, we'll take it all right. Well, 0:25:21.640 --> 0:25:25.280 here's the deal. They eat so slow that they don't 0:25:25.320 --> 0:25:28.439 even have gas that builds up in their system. Uh. 0:25:28.560 --> 0:25:31.520 That is how slow they they are digesting their food, 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:34.840 so the gas just gets reabsorbed through the intestines and 0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:37.560 into the bloodstream. Uh. And it says here that they're 0:25:38.040 --> 0:25:42.040 the gases then, uh, respired out of the lungs. Does 0:25:42.040 --> 0:25:45.920 that mean that they mouth for it or does it? Yeah? 0:25:46.240 --> 0:25:48.160 I mean that's what I saw is that they have. Yeah, 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:51.560 they basically pass those same gases that they normally would 0:25:51.600 --> 0:25:56.120 out of their their fannie in the American sense, um 0:25:56.440 --> 0:26:00.200 the out of their mouth through breathing. Interesting. So yeah, 0:26:00.240 --> 0:26:04.200 I guess the mouth fart worst band name ever. Worse 0:26:04.280 --> 0:26:09.359 than diarrhea Planet. You're right, man, it's better than No, 0:26:09.560 --> 0:26:12.760 it's actually worse than frozen poop knife. They should do 0:26:12.760 --> 0:26:17.200 a joint tour. Yeah, yeah, you know that mouth fart 0:26:17.280 --> 0:26:19.760 is going to be the opener always. They're never make 0:26:19.800 --> 0:26:22.840 it to the headline. Boys are never headline, you know. 0:26:23.400 --> 0:26:25.200 And I say boys because there's no way a girl 0:26:25.200 --> 0:26:29.560 band would be called mouth fart the so uh. They 0:26:29.560 --> 0:26:31.480 also have a multi chambered stomach sort of like a 0:26:31.520 --> 0:26:36.679 cow um, which is really interesting because that's like a 0:26:36.720 --> 0:26:39.280 third of their body weight if their stomachs are full. 0:26:40.440 --> 0:26:43.560 Yeah yeah, and I mean, like the reason why it's 0:26:43.560 --> 0:26:46.240 so so much of their body ways because they digest 0:26:46.320 --> 0:26:49.400 foods so slowly, they have to have this multi chambered 0:26:49.480 --> 0:26:52.560 stomach to get as many nutrients as they possibly can 0:26:52.640 --> 0:26:55.760 out of it. And even still, like, it's a really 0:26:55.880 --> 0:27:02.520 terrible evolutionary strategy to evolve as a a strictly um 0:27:03.240 --> 0:27:08.320 is it or bore vous as strictly tree dwelling herbivore, 0:27:08.920 --> 0:27:12.199 Like that's that's a really bad strategy because you have 0:27:12.280 --> 0:27:16.080 to be small enough to exist in the tree, right, Um, 0:27:16.160 --> 0:27:17.480 but at the same time, you have to be big 0:27:17.600 --> 0:27:20.680 enough to eat tons of leaves every day. Well, the 0:27:22.000 --> 0:27:24.280 if not, you're because the leaves don't give you they're 0:27:24.280 --> 0:27:26.159 not very energy dense, so you have to eat a 0:27:26.200 --> 0:27:28.600 ton of them to get good energy. Well, the sloss 0:27:28.640 --> 0:27:32.080 evolved the different strategy. They just slowed their metabolism down, 0:27:32.320 --> 0:27:34.280 so they can be small, but they don't have to 0:27:34.280 --> 0:27:36.879 eat that many leaves. And in fact, they can go 0:27:37.680 --> 0:27:42.120 for days without eating. And because they digest so slowly, 0:27:42.400 --> 0:27:45.359 they only poop about once a week. But to to 0:27:45.600 --> 0:27:50.600 the central cog of this whole adaptation is having a 0:27:50.640 --> 0:27:54.720 big stomach that can very slowly digest every possible nutrient 0:27:54.840 --> 0:27:58.399 out of the food that they eat. Yeah, so they do. 0:27:58.520 --> 0:28:02.240 They defecate and urinate once a week. Um, generally in 0:28:02.280 --> 0:28:04.320 the same spot kind of at the base of the tree. 0:28:04.359 --> 0:28:06.920 I don't think they like to wander too far because 0:28:07.000 --> 0:28:09.920 when they're on the ground they are um much more 0:28:09.960 --> 0:28:13.480 at risk than when they're up in their tree. Um. Yeah, 0:28:13.520 --> 0:28:15.800 because they're super slow and they're you know, they're at 0:28:15.880 --> 0:28:19.200 risk for attack for you know, whatever, any any sort 0:28:19.240 --> 0:28:22.240 of larger mammal could come by and have a sloth 0:28:22.440 --> 0:28:25.680 lunch at any time, right, right, In particular, the harpy 0:28:25.800 --> 0:28:28.520 eagle is like their main predator. But also, yeah, they're 0:28:28.600 --> 0:28:34.560 they're definitely vulnerable to acelots and jaguars and um, virtually 0:28:34.600 --> 0:28:37.879 any other predator in the jungle because they move so 0:28:38.000 --> 0:28:41.400 slowly and they have such an inability to defend themselves. 0:28:41.800 --> 0:28:45.640 But what they've what that Some researchers think that the 0:28:45.840 --> 0:28:50.640 reason sloths evolved to move so slowly is because it's 0:28:50.640 --> 0:28:53.960 a defense mechanism for them that rather than um like 0:28:54.000 --> 0:28:56.880 the howler monkeys that they share the jungle with. You know, 0:28:56.880 --> 0:29:00.320 when something comes along um and and gets the howler 0:29:00.400 --> 0:29:03.080 monkeys agitated, the howler monkeys scream and run around and 0:29:03.120 --> 0:29:07.160 try to escape. Sloths, right, the sloths, who may be 0:29:07.320 --> 0:29:10.280 in the same tree as a howler monkey, um just 0:29:10.480 --> 0:29:14.400 stays motionless and silent, and so they camouflage in with 0:29:14.480 --> 0:29:17.880 the tree. So that really slow movement is actually a 0:29:18.560 --> 0:29:21.720 defensive adaptation as well. Yeah, I think the sloths uh 0:29:22.160 --> 0:29:26.200 defensive motto is nothing to see here. You're just like, 0:29:26.520 --> 0:29:29.200 we're just gonna be really still. Let these monkeys take 0:29:29.200 --> 0:29:31.760 all the attention and no one will notice this, and 0:29:31.800 --> 0:29:34.960 that's kind of the idea. Yeah, that's exactly the idea, 0:29:34.960 --> 0:29:37.400 and it works, It actually does work, and it's it's 0:29:37.440 --> 0:29:40.200 a it's misleading, I think to say, which means I 0:29:40.200 --> 0:29:45.040 accidentally misleat everybody that's that slows have no um recourse 0:29:45.080 --> 0:29:47.520 if they are found out. I saw at least one 0:29:47.640 --> 0:29:51.680 video where a harpie eagle found a sloth in a 0:29:51.720 --> 0:29:54.440 tree and lands right next to it, and the sloth 0:29:54.640 --> 0:29:57.040 just slowly like lifts its arm up and kind of 0:29:57.160 --> 0:30:00.920 swats behind it with its claw. Man the herpie eagle 0:30:01.240 --> 0:30:04.760 and the heartpie eagle look kind of puzzled, but it worked, 0:30:05.040 --> 0:30:08.400 like the herpy eagle left it alone. So yeah, they 0:30:08.840 --> 0:30:13.960 can ward off danger, just not that frequently actually. Yeah. 0:30:14.080 --> 0:30:16.320 And you know they despite the fact that they moved 0:30:16.360 --> 0:30:19.040 super slow, they uh, and they are lazy. They don't 0:30:19.040 --> 0:30:22.680 actually sleep as much as you would think. Um, in captivity, 0:30:22.760 --> 0:30:24.800 they will sleep a lot longer because they have, you know, 0:30:24.880 --> 0:30:28.240 no predators around, no jaguars, and they understand that and 0:30:28.240 --> 0:30:30.720 they're like, all right, everything's cool. I can really dig 0:30:30.760 --> 0:30:34.520 in and sleep some. But out in the wild they sleep, um, 0:30:34.560 --> 0:30:37.160 you know a little under ten hours, which is I 0:30:37.200 --> 0:30:39.000 guess if you would have asked me beforehand, I would 0:30:39.040 --> 0:30:42.560 I would have guessed, you know, fifteen and up first sloth. 0:30:42.760 --> 0:30:46.320 For sloth sleep well, they will. In captivity they sleep 0:30:46.360 --> 0:30:49.040 as much as fifteen to twenty hours a day, but 0:30:49.120 --> 0:30:51.240 in the wild they think. Like you said, you know, 0:30:51.320 --> 0:30:54.000 they got to be on point. And they're not stinky either, 0:30:54.040 --> 0:30:56.440 which is another great thing, even though you definitely don't 0:30:56.440 --> 0:30:59.280 want to slot as a pet um for reasons we'll 0:30:59.280 --> 0:31:02.840 talk about later. They don't smell. They smell um. They 0:31:02.880 --> 0:31:05.280 smell kind of like the trees they live in, which 0:31:05.320 --> 0:31:08.200 is kind of great and another defense mechanism. Yeah. So 0:31:08.320 --> 0:31:11.280 the reason that they smell like the trees that they 0:31:11.320 --> 0:31:15.480 live in is because sloths move so slowly that algae 0:31:15.560 --> 0:31:18.640 grows on them and their coats in their fur, which 0:31:18.720 --> 0:31:22.080 other sort of amazing part. Like I had no idea. No, 0:31:22.200 --> 0:31:24.240 I didn't either, and I don't think researchers had much 0:31:24.240 --> 0:31:26.479 of an idea about this until recently. They knew that 0:31:26.600 --> 0:31:31.000 sloths got covered with with green algae, especially during the 0:31:31.080 --> 0:31:33.120 rainy season. Normally they have like a tan or a 0:31:33.160 --> 0:31:37.120 brown colored coat, but when it gets rainy in the 0:31:37.160 --> 0:31:41.080 tropical rainforest they live in. Uh, an algae like growth 0:31:41.080 --> 0:31:43.520 will build up on their coat, which I mean, you 0:31:43.600 --> 0:31:45.520 try to grow some algae on you, you can't do it. 0:31:45.920 --> 0:31:47.920 Even if you didn't take a shower, you you move 0:31:47.960 --> 0:31:50.080 around too much, You couldn't get any algae to grow 0:31:50.120 --> 0:31:53.440 on you. Sloths can. And at first they thought, ha ha, 0:31:53.560 --> 0:31:56.480 that's that's hilarious. You had another funny fact about how 0:31:56.920 --> 0:32:01.360 slow sloths are. But as they've um, as they've researched 0:32:01.400 --> 0:32:04.760 more deeply into it, they found that actually the sloth 0:32:04.920 --> 0:32:09.800 coat is an amazing ecosystem in itself on the sloth, 0:32:10.280 --> 0:32:13.640 and that whether it's it's it's intentional or not, the 0:32:13.680 --> 0:32:18.520 sloth actually kind of cultivates a farm inside of its 0:32:18.520 --> 0:32:22.320 own coat that it uses to help feed itself to. Yeah. So, 0:32:22.520 --> 0:32:24.920 I mean I had seen pictures of these green tinted 0:32:24.960 --> 0:32:28.720 sloths and always kind of wonder what the deal was. Um, 0:32:28.760 --> 0:32:31.920 it helps act as camouflage, which is super helpful. And 0:32:32.040 --> 0:32:33.640 I don't know, did you mention the groove in the 0:32:33.680 --> 0:32:37.239 center of the hairs, no, Yeah, So each hair has 0:32:37.280 --> 0:32:39.080 a little groove down the center and that's where the 0:32:39.120 --> 0:32:42.440 algae is allowed to grow and obviously because they're not 0:32:42.480 --> 0:32:44.480 moving fast, you're gonna get you know, more of a 0:32:44.560 --> 0:32:47.239 chance to grow too. But like you said, they are 0:32:47.280 --> 0:32:50.680 a little ecosystem into themselves in that fur. Uh. They 0:32:50.720 --> 0:32:53.920 did one study that found nine hundred and eighty beatles 0:32:54.600 --> 0:32:58.000 living on a single sloth just taking roosts in there 0:32:58.040 --> 0:33:01.479 and their little jungle coats. Uh. And then there's this 0:33:01.560 --> 0:33:05.680 moth species. This is crazy um, the sloth moth, which 0:33:05.720 --> 0:33:12.200 is another great band name by the way, cryptosis. Uh, 0:33:12.320 --> 0:33:16.920 calepi colo epi color epi. Always say just the e 0:33:17.280 --> 0:33:23.920 it's always ohe I think you're right, yeah, color epi coloiepi, 0:33:24.000 --> 0:33:28.200 colo eppie, something like that, tomato tomato, cryptosis colo weepie 0:33:28.360 --> 0:33:35.400 dyer uh. And they they actually colonize exclusively in sloth fur. Right, 0:33:35.440 --> 0:33:37.760 that's the only place you will find that type of 0:33:37.800 --> 0:33:40.600 moth is living in the fur of a sloth. It's 0:33:40.680 --> 0:33:45.040 the sloth moth. Yeah, like totally symbiotic relationship. Uh. You know, 0:33:45.080 --> 0:33:47.560 they climbed down the once a week to poop and 0:33:47.680 --> 0:33:51.960 they they these moths lay their eggs in that poop. Um. 0:33:52.120 --> 0:33:56.080 And yes, they can actually lay their eggs in dingle berries, 0:33:56.560 --> 0:33:59.840 sloth berries. Everyone knows what that is, right, do we 0:33:59.880 --> 0:34:02.800 need to explain that. I don't know. I would say 0:34:02.880 --> 0:34:07.760 look it up. Okay, I think that's as far as 0:34:07.840 --> 0:34:11.160 we need to say. So the adult moths emerge from 0:34:11.160 --> 0:34:16.400 this poop, uh, and that they then say mama, and 0:34:16.440 --> 0:34:20.719 they fly up and take rest in the slots fur, right, 0:34:20.760 --> 0:34:24.680 and then they mate and reproduce, and then they lay 0:34:24.719 --> 0:34:27.680 eggs in the sloth poop and the circle of life continues. 0:34:28.000 --> 0:34:32.320 But again, this type of moth you won't find anywhere 0:34:32.360 --> 0:34:34.680 on Earth except in the fur of a sloth. And 0:34:34.719 --> 0:34:37.560 then there's also beatles in there. And so as these 0:34:37.600 --> 0:34:41.360 things like grow and die and decay and other plant 0:34:41.440 --> 0:34:44.719 matter and whatever is floating around in the air in 0:34:44.760 --> 0:34:47.560 the rainforest all kind of combined and get stuck into 0:34:47.600 --> 0:34:51.000 these grooves and the hair of the sloth fur, it 0:34:51.080 --> 0:34:54.640 forms this algae. And they know that there is um 0:34:54.760 --> 0:34:58.360 a relationship between the sloth moth and the algae in 0:34:58.480 --> 0:35:01.400 that the sloughs that have the most moths also have 0:35:01.440 --> 0:35:04.000 the most algae. And they figured out it's just basically 0:35:04.040 --> 0:35:07.359 this decaying matter and they're like, okay, this is too weird. 0:35:07.440 --> 0:35:11.840 Camouflage that kind of makes sense. But the fact that 0:35:11.880 --> 0:35:15.040 there's a moth that only lives in in the sloth fur, 0:35:15.400 --> 0:35:17.759 and the more more of those moths are, the more 0:35:17.760 --> 0:35:22.360 algae there's it's just too weird, and um, they tested 0:35:22.360 --> 0:35:25.480 this algae and they found that it's rich in fats, 0:35:25.680 --> 0:35:28.239 and for a very long time they're like, Okay, the 0:35:28.320 --> 0:35:32.960 metabolism kind of explains how a sloth could sustain itself. 0:35:33.239 --> 0:35:36.480 It's just it burns so little energy that it it 0:35:36.480 --> 0:35:40.920 it can live on very very nutrient sparse leaves. But 0:35:41.040 --> 0:35:43.720 it's still kind of a mystery. It doesn't fully make sense. 0:35:43.880 --> 0:35:46.319 And they think they figured out that the sloth as 0:35:46.360 --> 0:35:51.759 it's grooming itself eats this algae which is high in fats, 0:35:51.840 --> 0:35:55.160 and that that supplements its diet of leaves, and that 0:35:55.160 --> 0:35:58.000 that's really the combination of these leaves and this algae 0:35:58.200 --> 0:36:02.200 are what keeps the sloth live over its lifetime. And 0:36:02.239 --> 0:36:07.680 in the meantime there urine and their feces are fertilizing 0:36:07.719 --> 0:36:11.160 the tree that is their habitat, right where these moths 0:36:11.160 --> 0:36:13.359 are also laying their eggs. So it's just like this 0:36:14.000 --> 0:36:20.400 really unique symbiosis going on between plant, animal, and insect. Yeah, 0:36:20.440 --> 0:36:23.439 and everyone seems to be doing great. Yeah, And one 0:36:23.440 --> 0:36:25.120 of the thing I was like, well, you know, how 0:36:25.160 --> 0:36:27.400 much does that really help? The sloth is pooping at 0:36:27.440 --> 0:36:29.160 the base of the tree once a week. Does that 0:36:29.239 --> 0:36:32.319 really help? And apparently it really does. And it's not 0:36:32.400 --> 0:36:34.880 one of those It is slow, really, so you just 0:36:35.000 --> 0:36:38.520 nailed it. So sloths are so slow their poop actually 0:36:38.560 --> 0:36:42.359 slows down the decomposition in the tree because in the rainforest, 0:36:42.400 --> 0:36:47.799 decomposition happens so fast that the tree as actually nutrient depleted. 0:36:47.880 --> 0:36:51.799 Because the decomp happens so fast, sloth poop slows the 0:36:51.840 --> 0:36:55.680 whole process down and actually nurtures the tree even more. Yeah, 0:36:55.680 --> 0:36:58.320 it seems like everywhere the sloth goes, everyone just chills 0:36:58.360 --> 0:37:03.000 out it. Basically, the sloth dingleberries are just little rainbows 0:37:03.040 --> 0:37:06.480 trailing out of its behind. That's what sloths have. You 0:37:06.520 --> 0:37:08.760 have to look closely, but you'll see it. It sounds 0:37:08.800 --> 0:37:12.239 like a story my daughter would make up. So you 0:37:12.280 --> 0:37:16.280 do share a birthday, hey, which is coming up actually 0:37:16.320 --> 0:37:18.959 probably right around the time this is released. So oh yeah, 0:37:19.120 --> 0:37:22.800 well birthday day Ruby. All right, we'll take a break 0:37:22.960 --> 0:37:25.520 and we'll come back and talk about sloth sex right 0:37:25.560 --> 0:37:52.880 after this. All right, Chuck, you promised it. You have 0:37:53.000 --> 0:37:57.960 to deliver sloth sex blow by blow. So here's the deal. 0:37:58.040 --> 0:37:59.799 This is where things like if you're like, all right, 0:37:59.880 --> 0:38:02.160 the sloth is the cutest thing, and this is all adorable, 0:38:02.200 --> 0:38:04.680 and they're just amazing, they are all those things. But 0:38:04.760 --> 0:38:07.080 this is when you might I just want to prepare 0:38:07.080 --> 0:38:11.000 everyone to be slightly disappointed, maybe a little bit with 0:38:11.200 --> 0:38:16.280 the next couple of segments, because first of all, sloths, 0:38:17.520 --> 0:38:19.520 you want to just think they sit around and just 0:38:19.600 --> 0:38:21.879 hug in love on each other all the time. They're 0:38:21.880 --> 0:38:25.719 solitary creatures. They don't want to be around even other sloths. No, 0:38:25.960 --> 0:38:29.000 but but this is something that you can have to 0:38:29.360 --> 0:38:32.160 kind of pick yourself back up after that devastating blow 0:38:32.920 --> 0:38:37.400 in in a square kilometer of rainforest, there might be 0:38:37.440 --> 0:38:42.040 something like seven hundred sloths even though there, yes, they're 0:38:42.080 --> 0:38:46.759 they're very dense neighborhoods of basically shut in weirdos. Imagine 0:38:46.800 --> 0:38:51.160 that that's a sloth community. The most devastating thing is 0:38:51.200 --> 0:38:53.080 coming up later. I know you know what I'm talking about. 0:38:53.480 --> 0:38:57.759 Oh yes, boy. But the males, like let's say, to 0:38:58.200 --> 0:39:01.160 sloths did find themselves in the same tree, they might 0:39:01.200 --> 0:39:04.120 get into a little fight but more than likely they'll just, 0:39:04.360 --> 0:39:06.000 you know, one of them will leave and they'll go 0:39:06.040 --> 0:39:08.319 find their own tree and it might be a tree 0:39:08.440 --> 0:39:10.920 ten or fifteen feet away, it sounds like, but it's 0:39:10.920 --> 0:39:14.239 their own. Um. They look for new trees. Also, when 0:39:14.239 --> 0:39:17.520 they're searching for a female partner, the males do and 0:39:18.000 --> 0:39:21.520 they mate very quickly. It's um. It lasts just a 0:39:21.560 --> 0:39:24.799 few seconds and then the males leave the female. They 0:39:24.840 --> 0:39:27.920 don't have anything to do with the babies, which I 0:39:27.960 --> 0:39:30.080 looked up and I was like, surely they have some 0:39:30.239 --> 0:39:33.320 cute name like sloth babies, but they're just called sloth babies, 0:39:33.520 --> 0:39:37.400 which is cute. Yeah, that's pretty cute. Not bad. So 0:39:37.560 --> 0:39:39.760 you know, you know, we were talking about fertilizing trees 0:39:39.800 --> 0:39:41.919 and everything. When they come down and poop once a week, 0:39:42.160 --> 0:39:44.239 I know where this is headed. So that was a 0:39:44.280 --> 0:39:46.400 big That was a big mystery, Like why would you 0:39:46.840 --> 0:39:49.279 if you're a sloth, coming down from a tree to 0:39:49.360 --> 0:39:52.399 poop uses up about eight percent of your energy. That's 0:39:52.440 --> 0:39:54.960 a lot, and it doesn't make any sense because it 0:39:55.040 --> 0:39:59.879 leaves you vulnerable to predation. Some researchers say, we gotta 0:40:00.000 --> 0:40:03.640 figured out they're leaving scent markers on the tree to 0:40:03.840 --> 0:40:08.080 signal to other sloths come on over here. Um, I'm 0:40:08.120 --> 0:40:11.600 I'm open to to whatever freaky stuff you want to try. 0:40:11.680 --> 0:40:16.360 Sloth friend, Yeah, anal secretions, so he, like a male sloth, 0:40:16.400 --> 0:40:18.520 will literally just say I'm just gonna rub my ans 0:40:18.560 --> 0:40:21.800 here and I'll meet you back there at eleven o'clock 0:40:22.400 --> 0:40:25.759 at least a little rainbow trail. I guess. So the 0:40:25.800 --> 0:40:28.319 female can also and and I heard these. Uh. I 0:40:28.360 --> 0:40:30.799 looked up some videos on the female mate mating call 0:40:30.880 --> 0:40:32.759 or whatever, because they can also put out the call 0:40:32.840 --> 0:40:36.000 that they're ready. Um. And it's described as a high 0:40:36.000 --> 0:40:38.480 pitched scream here in this article, but it sounds sort 0:40:38.520 --> 0:40:40.600 of bird like, like if I was in the jungle 0:40:40.640 --> 0:40:43.000 and I heard this, I would think it was a bird. Yeah, 0:40:43.040 --> 0:40:49.960 it's not sexy, though, it's not sexiest animal. Did you 0:40:50.080 --> 0:40:52.200 get that reference right now? No, I didn't, but I 0:40:52.239 --> 0:40:57.280 appreciate you saying it was a reference Beverly Hills Cop Balki, 0:40:57.560 --> 0:40:59.520 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a little cameo on Beverly 0:40:59.600 --> 0:41:01.800 Hills Coop. He was one of the all time greats. 0:41:02.120 --> 0:41:04.840 I never watched that TV show. I know you didn't. 0:41:04.840 --> 0:41:07.239 And Chuck, you're missing out. Remember I keep going back 0:41:07.280 --> 0:41:09.919 to that piano moving episode, and it was just one 0:41:09.920 --> 0:41:15.160 of the greatest of physical comedy ever really. But yeah, also, 0:41:15.280 --> 0:41:18.239 and it wasn't just Bouky, like, Balki and cousin Larry 0:41:18.400 --> 0:41:23.360 were really well cast. They're perfect foils. Seeing cousin Larry 0:41:23.719 --> 0:41:27.120 get like his last bit of patients just break and 0:41:27.160 --> 0:41:30.640 his eyes get really big because Balki did something, it 0:41:30.680 --> 0:41:33.440 was a beautiful thing to behold. Cousin Larry. Was he 0:41:33.480 --> 0:41:35.759 the other guy, the main guy? Yeah, I see it. 0:41:35.880 --> 0:41:39.799 I see a DVD box it in your future. Were 0:41:39.840 --> 0:41:44.720 they actually cousins in the show? Yes? Not in real life. 0:41:45.480 --> 0:41:46.839 I mean I don't know the set up at all. 0:41:47.000 --> 0:41:49.280 Is it that he has this wacky cousin from another 0:41:49.320 --> 0:41:52.520 land that all of a sudden shows up on his doorstep. Yeah, 0:41:52.560 --> 0:41:55.480 Balky Bartacamas from I can't remember. They say it a 0:41:55.480 --> 0:41:59.600 bunch of times, but his he's like a central southern, 0:41:59.680 --> 0:42:04.319 central European type guy, like from the Balkans or something 0:42:04.360 --> 0:42:07.240 like Latvia or something. And he comes over to America 0:42:07.400 --> 0:42:09.320 and he stays with his cousin Larry. I have to 0:42:09.400 --> 0:42:11.000 check it out. It's funny. All the all the great 0:42:11.000 --> 0:42:13.040 TV out that's mounting on a list. I'm like, I'll 0:42:13.080 --> 0:42:16.759 have to check out perfect strangers, right right exactly, it's 0:42:16.800 --> 0:42:20.680 on my list should be high up. So the woman 0:42:20.719 --> 0:42:23.640 puts out the maiden call the males. Uh, there may 0:42:23.640 --> 0:42:27.560 be competition for uh for that lady um who is 0:42:27.560 --> 0:42:30.680 in need. And if they do fight, they will fight 0:42:30.760 --> 0:42:35.080 upside down and uh, like you said, it's um a 0:42:35.120 --> 0:42:38.920 slow fight, is I guess pretty cute as it turns out, right, yeah, 0:42:38.960 --> 0:42:41.560 it is cute. So yeah, the males will fight to 0:42:41.600 --> 0:42:44.719 the to the hurt bruised ego, and then one of 0:42:44.760 --> 0:42:48.319 them will leaven the mail that remains will say, okay, 0:42:48.360 --> 0:42:51.080 give me a kiss, baby, and then they'll have um. 0:42:51.120 --> 0:42:54.680 They'll do it like a few times. Uh, but it's 0:42:54.719 --> 0:42:58.160 really fast. Apparently I didn't I have enough pride, did 0:42:58.200 --> 0:43:02.600 not look up sloth sex. But um, from what I read, 0:43:02.680 --> 0:43:05.240 it happens very quickly. And then that's that and like 0:43:05.239 --> 0:43:07.759 like you said earlier, the male just kind of moves 0:43:07.760 --> 0:43:10.799 along like good luck with our children, and then the 0:43:10.880 --> 0:43:14.920 sloth um ges station period depends on whether it's a 0:43:14.920 --> 0:43:17.920 two toad or a three toad sloth, but it's somewhere 0:43:17.960 --> 0:43:20.960 between six and eleven months and then a sloth mom 0:43:21.000 --> 0:43:23.879 will give birth to one sloth baby at the time. 0:43:24.040 --> 0:43:28.640 No letters, nope, just one cute little baby. So here's 0:43:28.640 --> 0:43:31.680 where it gets devastating. Um. They do nurse their young 0:43:31.719 --> 0:43:34.040 for a little while, but again, that takes a lot 0:43:34.080 --> 0:43:36.719 of energy to nurse a little baby, so they only 0:43:36.760 --> 0:43:39.759 do that, um for a couple of weeks before they 0:43:39.800 --> 0:43:43.320 wean that baby onto solid food. The mommy is passing 0:43:43.360 --> 0:43:46.440 along all the information that the baby needs to know 0:43:46.560 --> 0:43:49.759 about what food is and how to how to hang 0:43:49.840 --> 0:43:53.080 and live in trees. And they do cling to their moms, 0:43:53.080 --> 0:43:57.000 which is super cute, for about six to eleven months. Um, 0:43:57.080 --> 0:44:01.319 and then they are off on their own. Although they 0:44:01.360 --> 0:44:03.680 do this is sort of cute. They do share arrange 0:44:03.680 --> 0:44:07.440 with mom and apparently we'll stay within uh calling distance 0:44:07.480 --> 0:44:10.480 of one another. M And this is all great, and 0:44:10.520 --> 0:44:13.239 I know I'm set set everyone up for heartbreak. So 0:44:13.360 --> 0:44:16.279 here it goes. If a mommy sloth is up in 0:44:16.280 --> 0:44:19.560 a tree and baby sloth slips and falls down to 0:44:19.600 --> 0:44:24.240 the ground, mommy may just leave baby there. Yeah, that's 0:44:24.400 --> 0:44:30.080 like really hard for me to accept. I know. Uh, 0:44:30.760 --> 0:44:34.399 because a baby sloth is cute. Adult sloths are cute enough, 0:44:34.480 --> 0:44:37.560 but a baby sloth is just like I bleach right, 0:44:37.719 --> 0:44:40.759 so to to the idea of it just being like 0:44:41.160 --> 0:44:45.120 down there on their own. It was a great three 0:44:45.160 --> 0:44:48.160 months we had together, but I'm not going to put 0:44:48.200 --> 0:44:51.400 myself in the at risk of being a vulnerable vulnerable 0:44:51.440 --> 0:44:54.839 to to some sort of a deal, right. Yeah, that's 0:44:54.840 --> 0:44:56.680 what they think is that the baby is just not 0:44:56.840 --> 0:44:59.160 worth it to the sloth, which is really said. I 0:44:59.160 --> 0:45:02.680 would understand that if there were sloth litters and one 0:45:02.719 --> 0:45:05.360 of them fell off, or that they didn't bond, but 0:45:05.440 --> 0:45:09.200 they clearly do bond during the piggyback phase of the 0:45:09.239 --> 0:45:12.440 baby's development. Yea, So it's they think that it's just 0:45:12.480 --> 0:45:14.600 like it's just too much of a risk for the 0:45:14.640 --> 0:45:17.959 sloth and the law says better you than me. Kids. Yeah, 0:45:18.040 --> 0:45:21.400 this this disturbed me because I was the same as you. 0:45:21.480 --> 0:45:24.040 I was like, if there was a litter, I get it, 0:45:24.920 --> 0:45:28.200 or if they like they're highly successful, so you would 0:45:28.239 --> 0:45:31.640 think that you know, after a nine you know, up 0:45:31.640 --> 0:45:34.000 to a year of gestation period, or if they pump 0:45:34.040 --> 0:45:35.719 babies out like every month or so, it wouldn't be 0:45:35.760 --> 0:45:38.160 a big deal. But I don't know. It just seemed 0:45:38.200 --> 0:45:41.760 like it was worth that eight percent energy and maybe 0:45:41.760 --> 0:45:46.680 a risk of panther uh feed being panther feed, right, 0:45:46.760 --> 0:45:49.760 So I mean, I guess it would if that happened, 0:45:49.760 --> 0:45:53.359 that the baby falling happened to coincide with the mom 0:45:53.480 --> 0:45:56.120 having to poop at the base of the tree, maybe 0:45:56.120 --> 0:45:58.960 the baby has a chance. Then I'm gonna save you 0:45:59.000 --> 0:46:04.360 because I got to take a right oh man, um, 0:46:04.440 --> 0:46:06.680 So let's just go right past that, because that is 0:46:06.719 --> 0:46:09.080 still super sad for me to think about. They do 0:46:09.160 --> 0:46:12.200 live for about uh twenty years in the wild, which 0:46:12.239 --> 0:46:15.080 is pretty good for her mammal, especially when that's slow 0:46:15.120 --> 0:46:19.239 and that you know, seemingly defenseless. Yeah, that's the three toad. Yeah, 0:46:19.239 --> 0:46:22.719 the three toad. The two toads live about twelve in captivity, 0:46:22.719 --> 0:46:26.320 though they can live thirty and forty years. Uh, including 0:46:26.320 --> 0:46:29.920 our old friend Missy at the Adelaide Zoo in Australia, 0:46:29.960 --> 0:46:31.719 who just died a couple of years ago at the 0:46:31.719 --> 0:46:34.720 old age of forty three. For from what I understand, 0:46:34.760 --> 0:46:39.960 she's the oldest um known sloth to to live. She 0:46:40.000 --> 0:46:42.359 looked at the fact that she did. She looked great 0:46:42.400 --> 0:46:45.200 up to the end, like Phillis diller Um and the 0:46:45.640 --> 0:46:51.400 fact that uh that sloths lifespans double or triple in 0:46:51.520 --> 0:46:55.360 captivity really kind of says a lot about just how 0:46:55.400 --> 0:46:59.120 how much, how how frequently they fall victim to predators 0:46:59.560 --> 0:47:02.560 like that, to what kills sloths is, it's not fighting 0:47:02.560 --> 0:47:05.080 with other slaws, it's not falling from trees. They can 0:47:05.080 --> 0:47:08.640 withstand that, it's being eaten by a predator. That's how 0:47:08.680 --> 0:47:10.759 slaws typically die. So when you take them out of 0:47:10.800 --> 0:47:14.120 that situation, they tend to live very long. But like 0:47:14.160 --> 0:47:16.680 we were saying at the top of this episode, they're 0:47:16.719 --> 0:47:21.000 not necessarily happy. They get very stressed out when humans 0:47:21.040 --> 0:47:25.040 handle them, and they can actually die from stress. Um. 0:47:25.200 --> 0:47:28.080 They look happy, but they would much rather be at 0:47:28.080 --> 0:47:31.680 their home. In Central and South America really really really 0:47:31.719 --> 0:47:35.719 really difficult to keep alive because remember, especially with the 0:47:35.880 --> 0:47:39.640 three toad sloth, they're real picky eaters, and they learn 0:47:39.680 --> 0:47:43.960 from their mothers what constitutes food, and so whatever tree 0:47:44.400 --> 0:47:47.919 that their mom's been living in basically that specific tree 0:47:48.280 --> 0:47:52.640 growing in a rainforest in in South America, that is 0:47:52.680 --> 0:47:56.040 what constitutes food to the sloth, not anything else you 0:47:56.080 --> 0:47:58.920 could possibly come up with, and so they'll still starve 0:47:59.000 --> 0:48:02.480 in captivity pretty easily. Actually, especially if they're kept in 0:48:02.520 --> 0:48:06.040 captivity outside of Central or South America. Yeah, so if 0:48:06.080 --> 0:48:11.440 they do. Let's say you're a wildlife management professional and 0:48:11.520 --> 0:48:14.320 you come upon a little baby sloth that has been dropped, 0:48:14.800 --> 0:48:17.759 they will rescue that sloth if they can and try 0:48:17.760 --> 0:48:20.600 and rehabilitate it, but the goal is to get it 0:48:20.600 --> 0:48:23.560 back into the wild as soon as possible, not like, 0:48:23.640 --> 0:48:25.239 oh it's so cute, we're gonna keep it around for 0:48:25.280 --> 0:48:28.319 a little while. I mean, there are clearly some in captivity, 0:48:28.320 --> 0:48:30.560 but it's not like a common zoo animal that you 0:48:30.560 --> 0:48:33.640 will see. Right. There was one other thing that was 0:48:33.680 --> 0:48:36.560 kind of a quirk of their metabolism. So their mammals, 0:48:36.560 --> 0:48:40.720 which means they're warm blooded, but they're actually not really 0:48:40.760 --> 0:48:44.000 warm blooded because they produce so little energy and heat 0:48:44.400 --> 0:48:47.640 through their metabolism. They actually use the same kinds of 0:48:47.680 --> 0:48:50.960 strategies that like snakes and lizards do, where they use 0:48:51.040 --> 0:48:55.080 the sun to adjust their body temperature, which means that 0:48:55.239 --> 0:48:58.600 if it gets too hot, they can overheat and die. 0:48:59.080 --> 0:49:01.440 If it gets too well, they can very easily freeze 0:49:01.440 --> 0:49:04.759 to death because their body temperature changes with the ambient temperature. 0:49:05.160 --> 0:49:08.080 So that, combined with the fact that their food comes 0:49:08.120 --> 0:49:12.160 from a single tree in Central America. Um. That makes 0:49:12.160 --> 0:49:15.520 them really difficult to keep alive in captivity, which is why, 0:49:15.800 --> 0:49:18.719 like you're saying, they want to rehabilitate them back into 0:49:18.719 --> 0:49:21.120 the wild. That's the goal of it. Yeah. And while 0:49:21.160 --> 0:49:23.440 they are doing pretty well out there as far as 0:49:23.520 --> 0:49:29.640 their um status goes, they are of course threatened in 0:49:29.680 --> 0:49:33.040 the sense that any animal in South America and the 0:49:33.120 --> 0:49:37.920 rainforest is threatened because of deforestation. Uh. It's just you know, 0:49:38.040 --> 0:49:41.000 the sad fact all animals, even if they're doing well, 0:49:41.640 --> 0:49:44.960 are going to be threatened if you're hacking through and 0:49:44.960 --> 0:49:47.520 and leveling their habitat, like is what is going on 0:49:48.160 --> 0:49:51.080 pretty much. Yeah, that's I mean, that's the biggest threat 0:49:51.160 --> 0:49:55.640 is deforestation. Although for the pygmy sloth that lives on 0:49:56.000 --> 0:49:58.440 a scudo island off of the coast of Panama and 0:49:58.520 --> 0:50:03.120 nowhere else be because their their habitat is so limited 0:50:03.560 --> 0:50:05.920 that any deforestation that happens there is put them in 0:50:05.960 --> 0:50:09.480 grave danger. Um. But it's basically cutting down the forest 0:50:09.480 --> 0:50:12.600 and then building roads through the forest because sloths will 0:50:12.719 --> 0:50:16.719 go from tree to tree on the ground sometimes, which 0:50:16.719 --> 0:50:19.040 means that when they encounter a road, it's hard to 0:50:19.040 --> 0:50:20.960 get from one tree to the other aside from on 0:50:21.000 --> 0:50:24.840 the ground. So a sloth crossing the road is probably 0:50:24.880 --> 0:50:27.480 not a good gamble for the sloth. But the more 0:50:27.600 --> 0:50:30.840 roads we build through the rainforest, the more sloths to 0:50:30.840 --> 0:50:34.000 get hit by cars, which is about the saddest thing 0:50:34.040 --> 0:50:37.600 you could hit by a car with a car. Yeah. 0:50:37.680 --> 0:50:39.919 And here's uh, you know you always hear about um 0:50:40.200 --> 0:50:42.560 like a movie medicine man, like the cure for cancer 0:50:42.600 --> 0:50:45.319 maybe in this one leaf in the middle of a 0:50:45.360 --> 0:50:48.680 forest somewhere in a jungle. They may not have the 0:50:48.719 --> 0:50:51.480 key to cancer in a sloth, But the Smithsonian Tropical 0:50:51.520 --> 0:50:55.600 Research Institute did collect fungi samples, you know, the algae 0:50:55.600 --> 0:50:57.759 that grows in their fur. Uh. And this is of 0:50:57.840 --> 0:51:00.640 the three toed sloth. And they own that some of 0:51:00.640 --> 0:51:04.680 these samples from the sloth coat helped fight against malaria 0:51:04.840 --> 0:51:09.440 or the parasite that causes malaria and um chagas disease, 0:51:09.440 --> 0:51:12.920 which I know we've talked about. It's another tropical parasitic disease, 0:51:13.800 --> 0:51:18.080 stop your heart mersa cholera, salmonella. Uh. And they were 0:51:18.120 --> 0:51:23.759 also active against human breast cancer cells. So pretty amazing, yeah, 0:51:23.800 --> 0:51:26.200 which I mean, like that's the stuff that they found 0:51:26.239 --> 0:51:29.000 in the algae growing on sloth fur, which, Yeah, that 0:51:29.120 --> 0:51:31.760 is astounding. It's awesome. So we're all gonna be chewing 0:51:31.800 --> 0:51:36.759 on sloths in the future. Well, yeah, don't say that. 0:51:38.120 --> 0:51:40.080 They'll be alive. You don't have to kill him or anything. 0:51:41.280 --> 0:51:45.799 Gently suck on their fur. Okay, okay, Um you got 0:51:45.800 --> 0:51:49.239 anything else? I got nothing? Well, if you want to 0:51:49.239 --> 0:51:52.520 know more about sloths, there's a whole internet out there 0:51:52.520 --> 0:51:54.600 about them, although we did a pretty good job covering 0:51:54.600 --> 0:51:58.399 at Chuck if I do say so ourselves. Um, well, 0:51:58.440 --> 0:52:02.160 since I said Internet, that means it's time for listener man, 0:52:05.160 --> 0:52:09.719 I'm gonna call this politics on your show. Hey, guys, 0:52:09.880 --> 0:52:12.239 love the show. I've been listening for several years now, 0:52:12.280 --> 0:52:13.960 and I've learned lots of good stuff. And you've also 0:52:14.000 --> 0:52:16.520 introduced me to the end of the World with Josh 0:52:16.520 --> 0:52:20.359 Clark and movie crush. Yeah how about that? All right? 0:52:20.520 --> 0:52:23.400 Will goes deep? Uh And he says this recently, I 0:52:23.400 --> 0:52:25.120 was looking through reviews and comments on the show on 0:52:25.160 --> 0:52:27.800 Apple Podcasts. I saw a number of people making critical 0:52:27.800 --> 0:52:30.600 comments about how you share your opinions on religion and 0:52:30.640 --> 0:52:34.160 politics too often. Um, I am a politically conservative and 0:52:34.200 --> 0:52:36.520 religious guy. And I want to encourage you to keep 0:52:36.520 --> 0:52:39.800 sharing your opinions. I live in a smallish Midwestern town 0:52:39.840 --> 0:52:42.200 and a red state where I grew up and spent 0:52:42.280 --> 0:52:43.960 most of my life. Most of the people in my 0:52:44.080 --> 0:52:46.560 orbit either go to church with me and my family 0:52:46.640 --> 0:52:50.000 or hold similar conservative views. Your opinions serve as an 0:52:50.000 --> 0:52:55.640 important function of bringing some alternate alternative perspectives that sometimes 0:52:55.719 --> 0:52:59.239 challenge my opinions and encourage me to reevaluate certain positions 0:52:59.239 --> 0:53:02.520 and views. Please keep interjecting your views, guys. Too many 0:53:02.520 --> 0:53:06.360 of us automatically dismiss any opinions, and unfortunately people who's 0:53:06.400 --> 0:53:09.200 views contrast with their own. UM. I used to work 0:53:09.200 --> 0:53:12.040 for an administrator. He would frequently say, if we're all 0:53:12.040 --> 0:53:14.280 thinking the same thing, then some of us aren't thinking 0:53:15.840 --> 0:53:17.680 that sounds like something. That's a really great that's a 0:53:17.680 --> 0:53:22.200 great solational poster. That's good. That's that's the first album's 0:53:22.320 --> 0:53:29.560 title for Mouth Farts debut. Keep up, boy, keep up 0:53:29.600 --> 0:53:31.440 the great work, and keep offering your views along with 0:53:31.440 --> 0:53:34.680 your well research and fascinating topics, well seasoned with witty 0:53:34.760 --> 0:53:39.360 humor and hilarious banter. Regards will Well, that was a great, 0:53:39.680 --> 0:53:44.200 very nice, very kind email, like Will saw something probably said. 0:53:44.400 --> 0:53:47.279 These guys probably know about this, and I want to 0:53:47.320 --> 0:53:49.600 make sure that they know it's cool. So thanks Will 0:53:50.520 --> 0:53:55.719 as much appreciated. Um, if you like to join in 0:53:55.760 --> 0:53:58.480 with Will's course, we love that. I would also be 0:53:58.520 --> 0:54:01.000 interested to hear other people who want to write in 0:54:01.040 --> 0:54:03.759 and explain why we shouldn't share our politics or views, 0:54:03.800 --> 0:54:06.280 because I'm I'm very curious to hear the other side 0:54:06.280 --> 0:54:09.960 as well. It makes me a centrist. Fairness dot com right, 0:54:10.440 --> 0:54:13.520 You can go to stuff you Should Know dot com 0:54:13.640 --> 0:54:15.719 and find all of our social links there, and you 0:54:15.760 --> 0:54:18.600 can also send us a good old fashioned email, Wrap 0:54:18.600 --> 0:54:20.680 it up, spank it on the bottom, and send it 0:54:20.719 --> 0:54:27.440 off to stuff podcast at i heeart radio dot com. 0:54:27.520 --> 0:54:29.680 Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radios. 0:54:29.680 --> 0:54:32.240 How Stuff Works. For more podcasts. For my heart Radio, 0:54:32.320 --> 0:54:34.960 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:54:35.040 --> 0:54:36.160 listen to your favorite shows.