The sloth, which moves 0.2 meters per second and is extremely slow, has not been extinct by natural enemies?

An impressive character in the cartoon "Zootopia" is Mr. Sloth named "Lightning". Mr. Sloth speaks and does things very slowly, and even laughing seems to be in slow motion. Even so, it is an excellent employee of Animal Vehicle Administration's number one efficiency.

In the real world, sloths are also notoriously slow, and it can even be said that "slow" is brought to the extreme. It was reported on the Internet that a sloth was crossing the road, and passing car owners kindly stepped on the brakes to make way for the sloth in order not to let the wheels run over it. However, one minute has passed, two minutes have passed... The driver was about to fall asleep... The driver woke up again, and the sloth hadn't reached the middle of the road. The driver, sweating profusely, had to get out of the car, carry the sloth away from the middle of the road, and put it on the tree next to it. Netizens commented that this is a speed that is rarely seen in a sloth's life.

Indeed, it takes a full month for a sloth to travel a distance of 2 kilometers. Even if you need to escape in danger, the movement speed will not exceed 0.2 meters per second.

The appearance of sloths is a bit like monkeys, and their movements are slow. They often hang their claws upside down on branches and stay motionless for several hours, so they are called sloths. Sloths mainly inhabit the tropical rain forests of South America. Sloths are divided into two-toed sloths and three-toed sloths. The difference between them is that the two-toed sloths have three toes on the hind limbs and two toes on the front limbs, while the three-toed sloths have three toes on the front and rear limbs. Their number of cervical vertebrae is also different. Among them, the three-toed sloth has 9 cervical vertebrae, which is the most among mammals; while the two-toed sloth, like most mammals, only has 7 cervical vertebrae.

Why are sloths so slow? This is because the sloth's front limbs are obviously thicker and longer than the hind limbs, and the front and rear limbs are disproportionately, so that the sloth can only rely on the two front limbs to drag the hind limbs to move forward when crawling, so it moves so slowly.

Animals like sloths move so slowly, are small in size, and have basically zero combat effectiveness. There are many natural enemies in tropical rainforests. Why haven't they gone extinct yet!

The life-saving rule of a sloth is: Hide in a tree and don't come down!

Sloths live in tropical rain forests, where the climate is humid and hot, and it is a haven for many snakes, most of which are highly venomous, and these venomous snakes can easily prey on sloths. In addition, many cats are also natural enemies of sloths. To avoid these predators, sloths can only perennially perch in trees.

Some people will say that many snakes and cats also climb trees. What if they climb the trees to catch sloths?

Rest assured, the trees that sloths inhabit are not ordinary trees, but large trees with a height of at least a dozen meters or more, and sloths usually stay near the top of the big trees. The surface of these trees is still very slippery, and ordinary animals can't climb up at all, or can't climb that high. In this way, sloths avoid most predators.

For animals, if it has a large range, the risk of exposure is high. A sloth will only live on a few nearby trees in its lifetime, and the farthest it travels is the distance between two adjacent trees. In this way, the chance of encountering sloths with natural enemies is greatly reduced.

Sloths hide in trees all year round, so what does it eat and drink?

Sloths have extremely low dietary requirements. When they are hungry, they shove a handful of leaves from the branches and stuff them into their mouths. This leaf can satisfy the energy consumption of the sloths for a day. Yes, a sloth only needs to eat about 60 grams of leaves a day to survive, and these 60 grams of leaves also contain all the water it needs throughout the day. In fact, in extreme cases, sloths won't starve to death even if they don't eat for a month.

According to the indigenous people living in the tropical rain forests of South America, the flesh of sloths is very unpalatable, smells fishy and stinks, and tastes very chai, making it difficult to swallow. Why is sloth meat so unpalatable? Because it hides in trees all its life, does little exercise, and never takes a bath. We all know that chickens kept in cages will have poor meat quality due to less exercise. The chickens raised in the mountains have a lot of exercise, and their meat tastes delicious.

Because sloth meat is very unpalatable, carnivores rarely use it as their main prey. On top of that, humans also hate eating it.

At the same time, when carnivores choose their prey, they will give priority to a problem of input-output ratio. If chasing a prey requires a huge amount of energy, and the energy gained from eating the prey is not enough to compensate for the energy expended in chasing it, then it will not consider chasing the prey. The sloth is very small. The gross weight of an adult sloth is only about 10 pounds. After removing the thick and long hair and bones, the remaining flesh is only about 2 to 4 pounds. If you want to catch a sloth, you have to work hard to climb to the top of the big tree, and you may be killed if you are not careful. I believe that no carnivore is willing to pay such a large price to eat a small piece of sloth meat that is fishy, ​​smelly and woody.

In addition, although sloths are slow, their claws are very sharp. When a natural enemy is approaching, the sloth moves slowly with its left and right hands. Although the speed is very slow, it can always cause a certain deterrent effect to the natural enemy.

Sloths have a cleanliness habit. When they go to the toilet, they must get down from trees and settle on the ground, although more than 50% of sloths are found and killed by natural predators when they go to the toilet.

Since the ground is so dangerous, why do sloths insist on running to the ground for convenience?

To put it bluntly, it is to save lives. Sloths have a parasite called the sloth moth. Sloth moths help sloths grow the green algae on their bodies, and sloths provide them with food, shelter and lay eggs.

Every time the sloth goes to the toilet, it is always in the same place. At this time, the sloth moth will take the opportunity to lay its eggs on the ground, and the hatched baby sloth moth will also take the opportunity to climb on the sloth's back.

For sloths, their green algae are very important. Green algae can not only provide natural protective color for sloths to avoid the pursuit of natural enemies, but also emergency rations for sloths. When there is a lack of food, or when you are lazy, the sloth can easily use a handful of green algae from its back to satisfy its hunger.

A sloth's body temperature can change with the surrounding environment. And its natural enemy, the snake, relies on infrared light to perceive things around it. In the eyes of snakes, sloths are integrated with the surrounding environment, and naturally it is difficult to find the existence of sloths.

It can be said that although the sloth is extremely slow, it has also evolved to the extreme in order to save its life.