WEBVTT - Selects: How Sloths Work 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:03.360 Hey, everybody, it's me Josh, and for this week's s 0:00:03.520 --> 0:00:08.800 Y s K Selects, I've chosen our classic episode on sloths. 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:12.920 Everybody knows that sloths spring the absolute best out of humans, 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:15.720 and I suspect I'm working on a theory here that 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:18.920 it's because we have some evolutionary memory of some moment 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.279 where human beings were saved from extinction through the direct 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.200 intervention of sloths. Like I said, it's a theory and 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.600 I'm still working out the details here, but I'll keep 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:32.320 you posted in the meantime. Enjoy this wonderful episode on sloths. 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.000 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:49.640 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.360 There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's guest producer Josh t 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:58.600 over there. They can about the number twenty three, just 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:03.840 sitting there thinking about until see that's right, I forgot that. Yeah, 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.160 he's in Illuminati stuff if I remember correctly. So he's 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.160 also look look at this guy. He is so good, Chuck. 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:12.319 He knows to just sit there and keep quiet even 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:14.640 though he's dying inside right now, to talk about the 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.280 number twenty three. Uh if I had just pulled out 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:21.520 some random show from like our archive from years ago? 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.360 Could you see who the producer was? Oh? I don't know, 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.440 Let's let's give it a try. Um geez, Now I 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:29.920 have to think of a show that we did years ago. 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:33.160 Uh well, since we're doing an animal show today, the 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:37.640 only I can think of his animals elephants, Jerry that 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:42.000 long ago? Probably Jerry? Or how about this? Can you 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.440 name any shows that other guest producers were on off 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:51.160 the top of your head? Um, no, this game turns 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.600 so lame so fast. I feel like we we well, 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:56.960 Matt Frederick's too busy these days, but we can't have 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.120 Matt anymore in here because all Matt would do was 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.520 sit there and like not his head like uh huh 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:06.480 yeah yeah. Either that or his hands will be clasped 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.360 together with this look of sheer joy on his face, 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.280 just to hear us talk. What was great? It made it. 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:14.399 It made recording that much better. In the old days. 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.760 Matt's older and more cynical. Now he doesn't care anymore 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:21.120 about us, right, He's true released into the forest like 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:24.920 a baby sloth, right, which is good. That's what you 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:27.680 want to do with either Matt Frederick or a baby sloth. 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.840 You don't want to keep them in captivity because sloths 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:33.800 don't do very well in captivity. Matt does okay in captivity, 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.200 he's fine, but a sloth not nearly as well as 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.560 what Matt Frederick could do it captivity. Uh. Yeah, and 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.080 you were watching just before we recorded. Everyone should know 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:47.720 Josh was watching the twenty eight million view YouTube video 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:51.000 of Kristen Bell. Uh can we call her friend of 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.600 the show. Sure? I mean she's probably not going to 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:56.560 write in to object to it, so yeah, we could. 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:58.640 We could call her that. She's the stuff you should know. 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:02.399 Listener has been over the years, as is her husband, Mr. 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:05.520 Deck Shepherd, who was also a movie crush guest um 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.679 and he has his own podcast to Armchair Expert. Yeah, 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.560 he's crushing it right out of the games. Those are good, 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:13.480 good podcast. Actually, I don't know if you listen to 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:18.120 this are good. So she very famously he brought her 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.160 a sloth on her birthday and she went on Ellen 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:23.640 and they showed video and it's still just one of 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.320 the great videos you can ever watch. Is It's very sweet. 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:32.280 She's like having a meltdown and fully fully melting down. Yeah, 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:36.960 like crying, like sobbing because she's so excited that there's 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.760 a sloth in her house because this is something she's 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:41.920 she's wanted to meet a sloth like for her whole 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.040 life and now she gets to. Yeah, and I watched 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.080 it again today too, because after doing this research, I 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.040 was like, wait a minute, was she holding a sloth 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:54.520 because that's not good? And uh, it showed a picture 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:56.760 and she's not. The sloth is on its little perch 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:02.119 and she's very respect lee next to the sloth, exactly 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:06.400 how it should be. If there's any reason that that 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.880 kept Kristen Bell from being America's Sweetheart, which I can't 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:14.000 think of one that that erased it right there, just 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.200 knowing how to be around a sloth when you have 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:18.599 meltdowns at the idea of being around a slot that's 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.760 that's some serious self control and for the benefit of 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.520 the animal, that's great stuff. Yeah, not touching the animal 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:28.440 and uh, literally offering for me to change my daughter's 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.839 diaper in her restaurant booth. Yeah, that's right, because she 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:38.680 said the bathroom was dirty. She's a class act. Class act. So, Charles, 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.880 you mentioned um elephants. We did an elephant episode and 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:45.400 that that it's similar to the to the whole sloth thing. 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:47.520 Like you see a sloth, especially if you see a 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:49.800 sloth in captivity at a zoo or something like that, 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:52.040 you're like, well, I want to carry it around like 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:54.920 a baby or something like that. It's a sloth. It's 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:56.800 one of the cutest things on the planet. But you 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.520 don't want to do that. Slouce don't really eel with 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:04.320 captivity very well. Although they can live way longer in captivity, 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.680 they're not necessarily happy. But I was thinking one of 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.159 the things, one of the reasons why people seem to 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:12.120 think that they are happy or would want to be 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.760 picked up is because, at least among one type of sloth, 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:20.400 they're always smiling. They're smiling, which makes them super cute. 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.599 They also have a mullet. That's the the three toad 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.760 Brady Puss sloth um. They have a mullet and they 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:29.760 are always smiling. But if you look, it's just the 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.480 coloring on their face that happens to resemble a smile. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.720 They're they're they have so little muscle mass that they 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.960 don't have the capability of smiling, making their face smile. 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:42.960 It's just the colorings on their fur. Yeah, which is 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.479 can be very misleading to us dumb humans because they 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:50.560 can be scared or stress out of their mind and 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:54.120 it still looks like they are just chilling and smiling. Right. Look, 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:56.039 it's smiling. It loves it when I juggle it with 0:05:56.120 --> 0:06:00.520 two bowling balls in a flaming a flaming pit fork. 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.039 Oh I could come up with. I wonder where that 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.760 was going. Have you ever seen a flaming pitchfork? Is 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.560 something only in the Simpsons. So let's get into this 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:16.680 because the cuteness is just it's cute overload. When it 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:21.559 comes to slows, they are ridiculously cute. Um. Their whole 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:27.000 vibe is just you know, right up my alley at least. Sure, 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.800 not that I'm lazy mellow and but well you know me, 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:34.080 the real me isn't super mellow, but I like to 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:37.640 pretend to be sure, I strive to be. You get 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:42.080 the sloth vibe. Yeah, it's it's an aspirational state sloftht nous. Yeah, 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.560 so I love. The very first sentence of this research 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.160 says they're highly successful, which kind of cracked me up 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:49.839 when I read it because I pictured slaws of course 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:54.560 in business suits like running a company, right, can you 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:56.800 hurry it up? I have no time for this. But 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.200 what that means is is that for a very very, 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:06.120 very very long time, sloths generally have flourished in the world. Yeah, 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.920 they think that they probably evolved. Um. They're part of 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:15.400 a group or a family or some taxonomic designation called 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:20.920 um zenn athara and zenathara um are. It's it's like 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:30.240 the weirdo group that's sloths and eaters umillos. Sure, depending 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:32.160 on whether you want to be classy or not or 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.880 sound tough, sure zen artha Okay, I'll go with that, 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:42.560 but it's sloths and eaters armadillos um. Pretty much any 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.240 odd um animal you can think of would would fall 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.080 into zen artha what what what did you say? Zan 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:54.200 arthur ar zen arthra. So they all kind of formed 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.239 together in isolation on what was once an island South 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:04.360 America as as long back as eighty million years ago. What, yeah, 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.680 is an island? Yeah, you know, like the whole continental 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:10.120 drifts and all that stuff, and it decided to make 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.560 friends with Central America. Yeah, and and higher sea levels 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.360 that kind of thing. When the sea levels got locked 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:18.280 up in ice or when a lot of seawater got 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.960 locked up in ice. The land bridge that is Central 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:25.800 America came along and said, hey, build some zigarattes on me. 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.200 So they are highly successful. Uh, they are very slow moving, 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:35.160 like everyone knows. Um, they are in Central and South America. 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.880 Still no surprise there. Um. And like you said, there 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:45.439 are two kinds there. The two toad, uh, caleppus. I 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:50.040 was going to coleo opus, oh, colo opus, colo opus 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.360 colia rhymes of bosephis. Okay, that's a good way to 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.560 remember it. Uh. And then the little tom Brady Puss, 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:59.439 which is the three toad. But it's a bit of 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:03.440 a miss now because the two toad has three toes 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.880 but two fingers. Right. That's how they're classified or separated 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.680 from one another, the two toad or the three toad. Right. 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.000 So um, And technically I read somewhere, Chuck, that they 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:18.319 actually don't have legs. There's a four armed creature. Is 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.960 that the designation for arms? Yeah, from what I saw, 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:26.000 but they really just pay attention to how many fingers 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:29.320 are on the four arms or the four limbs what 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.400 we would think of as their arms, their front arms, 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.360 but they're really all four arms. And the way that 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:39.200 I kept, um the two separated, so too toe is 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:43.720 colo Opus, three toad is Brady puss is that I 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:47.520 thought the Brady bunch has more kids, So the Brady 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:51.360 has more toes and it's been working all day. Frankly, 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.520 that's pretty good. That's the second pneumonic device you've dropped 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:58.000 in the first like ten minutes of the show. Yeah, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.720 what do you think? You're doing? Great? Good as long 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:05.199 as it's working. So uh. The two toad guys and ladies, 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:09.080 they roam um as far as laws go, a pretty 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.640 great distance. Uh. They can forage and ranges up to 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:17.040 three and fifty acres, whereas the three toad guys they 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:19.800 only have a range of about thirteen acres. Uh. And 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.720 then there's the cutest of all sloth, the pygmy sloth 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:25.640 that are just on one one little island off the 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.560 coast of Panama, right and they're actually critically endangered as 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:35.319 far as later they are so cute, it's ridiculous. But like, 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.160 as close as the sloths are, like, there's not that 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.640 many differences besides the number of toes on their four limbs. 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.400 Um that the fact that you know one has the 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.640 smile markings. The three toad as the smile markings and 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.720 the mullet haircut. The other one looks like. Um, there's 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.480 a site called Slothville. It's a it's a conservation site 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.760 run by a woman named Lucy Cook, and um, she 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.400 says that the two toad slaws look a bit like 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.240 a cross between a Wookie and a pig. And I 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.240 think she absolutely nailed it with that description, right, yeah, 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:07.760 what does them look like? The little What was the 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:12.800 Christmas Special? What was Chewbacca's son? Oh? Man, if you 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:14.760 can remember that, Chuck, I'll buy you a case of 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.080 beer my hand. Put your phone down. I don't know. 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.760 I can't remember, but that's sort of what it reminded 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:25.240 me of Norman. I'm pretty sure it was Norman, Norman 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:31.200 Norman Bacare you right? I can't remember. I can't either. 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:33.240 I'm sure there's somebody out there. It's like you will 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:36.280 make beer, Josh. I only said that I was making 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:38.680 that offer to Chuck, so wookie to pick. That's a 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:43.160 pretty good descriptor, right. So my point is this, though, um, 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.480 as as similar as two toad sloths and three toad 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.320 sloths seem, there are some differences, but really, in the 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.560 grand scheme of things there. They seem a lot, a 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:57.160 lot closer than say, you know, a a dove and 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:02.920 a sloth agreed flaming pitchfork in a slow um. But 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:07.719 they're actually really separate. They're not even they're multiple different species. 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:12.080 They're not even in the same genus. And for comparison, 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.360 humans and chimps are in the same genus. Two different 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.120 types of slots aren't even in the same genus, So 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.280 there's a big distinction between the two and um. I 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:25.160 looked up sloth News, which is fast breaking strangely enough, 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.559 but they there's a study that came out recently where 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:33.960 they did some molecular DNA studies on sloth um sloth evolution, 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:36.400 and they found that they may the two toad and 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.719 the three toad slots maybe even further separated and may 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:43.160 have evolved independently of one another. That they may be 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.040 even more distantly related than we than we think. So 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.880 as similar as they seem to be, they're actually pretty different. 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.839 Although they are really similar. It's a it's a weird 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:56.160 fluke of evolution all around. Yeah, characteristically, I think they're 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.280 fairly similar. Um. The two toed variety are a little 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:02.640 bit bigger uh and hang upside down a little bit 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.400 more than the three toad variety, who you'll see those 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.720 sitting upright sometimes in trees. But I read somewhere that 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:12.719 they Slaus can spend up the of their life upside down. Yes, 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.600 it's amazing. They do everything upside down. They mate upside down, 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:20.120 they give birth upside down, they do almost everything that 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.199 they do upside down hanging and and did you say 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.000 it was the two toad that spend more of their 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.160 life upside down than the three to toad a little 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:31.520 bit more hang time, right, So that's one difference. But 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:33.640 even still, it's not like the three toad or just 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:35.960 averse to being upside down. I think both of them 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.600 spend so much time upside down that the part of 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.200 their hair, rather than being on their backs or their 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.280 head the top of their head like ours is um, 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:46.920 it's on their bellies because their upside down so much 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.720 that that's how gravity is has forced the hair to part, 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:54.280 just like shimp, just like an upside down shimp boy 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.440 ship's hair. Wow, it was something, it was something the 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.240 original butt cut. Yeah it was, wouldn't it. Yeah? So 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.920 the Brady Puss also has an extra neck vertebrae. So 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.160 if you've ever seen a sloth uh seemingly turn its 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.720 head three hundred sixty degrees, it's because they can turn 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:16.560 their head about two D seventy degrees and have almost 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.640 a three D sixty degree you know, counting their peripheral 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:25.960 vision range of sight. Yes, yes, but without the body 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:29.560 that is that is strictly from moving their head. They 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.800 actually again, they lack so much muscle mass and tissue 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:35.680 that they don't have the muscles to move their eyeballs 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.240 in their in their heads, so when they look around, 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:40.800 they have to move their whole head. But it has 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:45.160 helped out for sure, especially after a hard night on 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.600 the Saturday. But they they they the fact that they 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.320 have that extra vertebrae helps them look around more. But 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.120 it's just one more thing that makes them an extraordinarily 0:14:55.440 --> 0:15:01.440 unusual creature because only sloths and manatees are our mammals 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:04.840 that have more than seven vertebrae. Every other mammal on 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.120 the planet has seven vertebrae, and slossa manatees are the 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.880 only two that don't. Manitees a mammal, yeah all right, yeah, 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:14.200 they breathe there, They just spend a lot of time 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:16.480 in water. They were probably some sort of like wool 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:20.720 for bear something that eventually took to water. Well. Speaking 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:25.320 of bears and water, uh, slaus are really good swimmers. Um. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:27.480 If you look up a YouTube video of slaw swimming, 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.840 it's actually they can kind of get around, um and 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.520 are somewhat graceful in the water. They can hold their 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.080 breath for up to forty minutes, and in order to 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:38.960 do so, they can cut their heart rate by two 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:43.400 thirds and their metabolism down, which is like they already 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.080 I mean, we'll get into their metabolism later, but that's 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.480 saying something. If they can cut their metabolism down even 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.640 more on purpose, yeah for real, because the the sloth 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.680 metabolism is a thing to to behold in your mind. 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.680 It's like, um, yeah, we'll get to it in a 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.800 little bit, but just just know that I'm excited to 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.640 talk about sloth metabolism. Uh. And then I mentioned speaking 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:10.760 of bears, they their original predecessor back in the day 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:15.640 was something called a giant ground sloth or a megatherium. 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:18.800 And if you look at this thing, it looks sort 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:21.720 of like a bear. Um, its face is a little 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:23.320 bit different, but it kind of looks like a just 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.400 a big giant brown bear. It looked like a giant 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.320 beaver to me without the tail. I really that's I mean, 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.720 that's what I thought. Well, beaver without a tail is 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:35.040 really just a tiny bear with big teeth. I guess so, 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:38.320 I guess so. But they found that just from examining 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.600 its bones, they found that it could walk on um 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.880 its back legs, which makes it the largest bipedal land 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.400 mammal that ever lived, which is pretty cool. And there 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:53.040 was a sloth ancestor amazing, and we used to eat 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.800 them to chuck. We found um tool marks on some 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.720 of the bones, and they think, well, humans probably hunted 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:02.680 it to extinction. Tuk tuk. I guess yeah. Although we've 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.320 determined he was inn Anderthal, right right, he's been designated 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.720 officially as a neandertal. Uh. Shall we take a break. 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:13.840 I think it's high time. Man, all right, this is 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:44.960 our slowest episode ever and we'll be right back. So 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.920 before we get going on more real sloth stuff, I'm 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.800 assuming you have not seen the movie Zutopia, or have you. 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:56.719 I don't think no, I have a kids movie. No, No, 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:00.960 I haven't. There's a there's a sloth scene where that's 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:03.200 very very funny, and in fact, they made that a 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:06.440 very big part of the original movie trailer where these 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.440 uh animals are in a hurry to find out some 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.399 information from the d m V. And so they go 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:14.879 to the d m V and of course, as you know, 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:16.600 sort of an in joke to anyone who has ever 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.560 been at the d m B, which is notably slow, 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:21.560 they had a sloth that was it was completely run 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.720 by sloths, and there was just this one great scene 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:26.560 where they go up and try to get information from 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:28.880 the sloth and they really do it right, they take 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.080 their time, and uh, it's funny for kids and adults 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.320 are like highly recommend it is. And I mean like 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:40.120 it's probably fairly accurate because I slows. You know, everybody 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:44.560 knows they're super super slow. It's not it's not really 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:50.600 an overstatement or exaggeration. They genuinely are extremely slow. I 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:53.440 saw that they move on the ground, which is when 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.919 they move about the fastest aside from swimming, is something 0:18:56.960 --> 0:19:01.520 like half a kilometer per hour at top speed, and 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.840 that they'll they'll move maybe six to eight feet up 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:09.520 a tree in a minute. And these things are are 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.119 made to climb trees and that's how fast, or I 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:16.840 should say that's how slow they move. Yeah, they're The 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:21.320 actual term sloth um dates back to the twelfth century 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:25.359 in Spain, or in the Spanish language at least, they 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:31.040 were called los petasosos, which translates to the lazies, which 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.680 is hysterical because Emily and I often call animals lazies. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:39.359 Look at those lazies because pets are lazy. Sure, yeah, 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.000 they're not sloth lazy though, No, they're not sloth lazy. 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:44.480 But that literally translates into the lazies. And then when 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.639 the Spanish explorers started talking about the lazies, it was 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.720 translated into the word sloth in English in about the 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.639 I guess early seventeenth century. Yeah, yeah, because it was 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:58.960 it was a cleric I believe, who was like, oh, well, 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.159 we don't talk about lazy this, we talked about sloth 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.040 because it's a one of the seven deadly sins. Now, 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:08.360 it's really kind of a down word when it's used 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:12.000 as a as an insult, for sure, you know, but 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:14.119 it's like the slaws are the best. So I don't know, 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:16.400 I like it, I know, but at the same time, 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.399 it's like if somebody calls you slothful, you know that 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:23.600 they walked right past lazy like they saw it and said, no, 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.320 lazy is not enough. I really want to drive home 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.320 how much I disdain your laziness. Yeah, that that is 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.440 a good descriptor like if someone at work as slow 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:33.639 as something and you describe them as slothful instead of 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:37.320 just slow, right, because you're you're passing judgment on them 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:40.760 as well, like like biblical style judgment, like you're going 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.080 to hell. That's how slow you you took and getting 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:51.159 this TPS report to me. Uh. Two toed slaws are omnivorous, 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:55.240 so they can eat animals. Um, I didn't see where 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:57.520 they do that a lot. They mainly still eat fruits 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:00.400 and leaves and twigs and things, but they they will 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:04.280 eat birds sometimes in lizards. I would imagine they have 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:08.160 to be wounded or something because it's not like they 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.080 I mean, surely they don't hunt. They're not fast enough, 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.399 right they're Yeah, they're not snatching a bird out of 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.800 the air or something like that. They're not going after hummingbirds. 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:19.359 It would have to be like maybe a recently killed 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:22.679 or a an injured bird. And man, if you're an 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:26.240 injured bird in the tropical rainforest of Central and South America. 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:29.119 I'm guessing the last thing you want to see is 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:33.480 a hungry too toad sloth slowly coming at you, because 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:35.359 you know it's going to take a really long time 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:37.680 for it to eat you alive. There's a funny YouTube 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:44.159 video actually called when a Sloth Chases You. It's just 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:47.399 a sloth on the ground like set to horror music. 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:52.639 It's awesome. So I watched a lot of sloth videos. 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:55.200 There's well, there's a lot of good ones out there. 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.640 I recommend looking up sloth fight. Do you think it'd 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:01.680 be sad out or disturbing, But there's a bunch of 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:05.479 different videos and it's actually it's in the grand sloth style. 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:12.560 It's really cute when sloth's fight fight fight like they 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.800 they look like they're taking it seriously and they're all agitated. 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:19.400 But it's impossible for us to take the sloth fight seriously. 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:23.360 It's just too cute and they're just too incompetent at fighting. 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:28.040 Oh dear, the three toad guys, they are very much 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:32.160 more picky eaters and they eat um generally, these toxic 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:36.640 leaves from just a few trees and they they hang around, 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:38.879 like if they find a good tree that they like, 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:41.880 they will hang around that tree for a long long time. Yeah, 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:45.520 there's apparently they know that some three toad sloths will 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:48.640 inhabit the same tree for their whole life. It's it's rare, 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:52.520 it's unusual, but even still, I mean, their entire range 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:56.720 usually doesn't extend over like thirteen acres or five and 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:00.320 a half hectares, right, Like, it's a very small, all 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:04.119 limited area that a sloth, a three toed sloth in particular, 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:06.679 will will inhabit their whole life. Right, I think we 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:09.400 can talk about the metabolism now since we're eating. Yes, 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:12.560 I'm so happy, so I know what the I know 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:14.439 what you're affect of the show probably has to just 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:18.800 go ahead. There's like eid in here. So the reason 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:24.159 slots move so slowly is because in part they metabolize 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:28.200 so slowly. Like when you when you metabolize, you're converting 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:32.080 like food into energy, right, and you're doing all sorts 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:35.120 of stuff with that. You're moving your muscles, you're you're walking, 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:39.679 you're laughing, you're talking, you're recording a podcast, you're digesting food. 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:44.119 And slots are mammals. So they do have this metabolism 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:48.880 that's similar to um any other mammal metasilm metabolism. It's 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:53.399 just way slower and therefore it's way weaker. Like the 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:57.399 human metabolism puts out about eighty watts of energy at 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:01.720 any given time, sloths put out less than four watts. 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:06.560