Mystery of the Pooping Sloth: Part Two
Scientist Jonathan Pauli from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has an explanation for the mystery of sloth pooping rituals that focuses on the sloth as a mobile ecosystem.
Sloth fur is full of fungi, algae, insects, mites, and ticks. One sloth had 980 beetles hiding in its fur! Some of these critters ONLY live on sloths. Sloths are like roving mobile planets with living colonies.
Cryptoses moths are one of the alien inhabitants of sloth-planet. They only live on sloths, and one sloth can carry around as many as 120 moths!
Cryptoses Moth larvae (baby moths), can only eat one thing: yes, sloth poop.
So when the sloth makes the descent to poop, the female moths fly off the moth and lay eggs in the fresh poop. When the baby moths hatch, they have a great food supply. Then they transform into adult moths and fly up to find a new sloth-planet to live on.
There appears to be a connection between the number of moths, the amount of algae on a sloth, and the nitrogen content of a sloth’s fur. The more moths there are, the more algae and nitrogen.
One theory is that the sloths eat the algae, and thus the moth’s are providing the sloths with an extra food supply in exchange for the dangerous descent. Some think this is unlikely though, as their observations have never included seeing a sloth licking or lapping its fur. Others think that the importance as the algae as camouflage for the slow moving animal is reason enough for the symbiotic relationship.
Mysteries still abound regarding the relationship between the moths, algae, and the sloths. Ask a sloth and see what it says!
Three-toed Sloth. Can you spot any Sloth Moths?