Kind: captions
Language: en
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sloths you probably know them as one of
the most adorable creatures on the
planet sque but you might want to think
twice before snuggling with one because
their fur is actually home to whole
communities of organisms some of them
not so cute to begin with sloths are
often covered in green symbiotic algae
which keeps them camouflaged in the
trees where they live but that's not all
their fur is also home to sloth
moths over 120 sloth moths have been
found on a single sloth at a time there
are a few different species but most of
them have pretty similar Lifestyles they
live in the sloth's fur and feed on the
algae along with Sloth skin secretions
they even mate on the sloth Oo La La on
three- toad sloths when it's time for
the female moths to lay their fertilized
eggs they wait until the sloth takes a
bathroom break this doesn't happen very
often three toad sloths only climb down
from their tree about once a week to
poop and when they do the female mods
lay their eggs in the poop soon the eggs
hatch and coera fasis or poop eating
moth larva emerge and when the larvae
mature they fly up into the trees
looking for another sloth to
colonize this is all very well for the
mods but this bizarre bathroom Behavior
has puzzled scientists for years
being close to the ground makes sloths
vulnerable to Predators so why bother
leaving the canopy for a trip to the
toilet recently scientists suggested
that the sloths are actually getting a
meal out of this steel it turns out that
the MS may help cultivate the fur algae
by providing it nutrients and the algae
may do more than just camouflage the
sloths may actually eat it as well yum
it's a tiny ecosystem all in the fur of
a sloth but algae and poop eating sloth
moths are just the beginning sloths also
Harbor scarab beetles in their fur as
many as 980 of them on a single sloth
along with mites that live in their skin
and in their butts and on top of that
they've been known to carry a variety of
human diseases including
leishmaniasis a single cell parasite
that causes major skin
lesions of course this Menagerie living
in their fur Mak sloths an important
part of the Central American
ecosystem so while we should do our
parts to preserve sloths and their
habitats you might want to think twice
before hugging one unless you'd like to
snuggle with a few moths as well a
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