9 Sloth Facts Worth Clinging To

to learn they're actually really strong swimmers. And apparently they moved three times as fast and water as they do on land, which I know isn't great, but it's an improvement. Yeah, I guess so. And also they can hold their breath

underwater for forty minutes. No, that's impressive. Yeah. But my favorite thing I learned is that because they're so slow to move on land, sometimes slots will just dive bomb from a tree limb that's overhang over some water, just so that they can shorten their commute to the pool. Isn't that great? It's pretty impressive. And that's just one of nine facts we've got on today's show about slots. Let's dig in. Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson.

As always, I'm joined by my good friend Man Guesh Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof glass thumbing through an old copy of Ranger Rick. That's our Brendon producer Tristan McNeil. Has been a while since I've seen a copy of up. And we were supposed to have Gabe on the line, as we often do for nine Things, but Gabe is home with a pretty nasty cold. That's the first time he's called in sick. Yeah, well, we wish him well,

but actually he sent me his facts. He decided to go ahead and do the research, but he said he'd sound a little too stopped up if he were to join us. So I'm gonna play the role of Gabe today. All right, here we go. So can I start us off as well? I'm gonna start us off as me good. All right, here we go. My first fact that I found. So, you know one thing, these mini Chewbaccas aren't slow at We've talked about how slow they are, but not at mating.

And actually, according to Public Radio, the whole mating ritual is done in about five seconds, and that includes the four plays. So you're probably wondering, how does this work, you know, in case your parents didn't teach you about the birds and the sloths. The female sloth barks out of scream when she's in heat, and then the male slots come racing over to court her, or race as fast as they can't. There's they're slots. They're not swimming over.

So but the slots are so good at sex, or or at least productive at it, that at the Slot Sanctuary in Costa Rica, Slot sex is the one thing that's actually forbidden. They're too good at it, and the sanctuary does not need any more babies. That's so ridiculous. That's pretty good, all right, Gay, What do you have next? Oh well, I'm Gabe and here's my next fact. So

if you love avocados, you should thank a sloth. According to Smithsonian, giant ground sloughs used to roam the earth during the Cenozoic era, and the creatures were massive, about the size of ups trucks actually. But the creatures love the avocado, and along with a few other massive animals like mammoths, they would eat the fruit whole for a snack. Then they would deposit the seed miles away as they traveled,

all of which helped to keep the avocado around. I'll remember to thank us lot the next time I see one pretty good fact from gay, don't you think? Yeah? Great reading? All right, Okay, so I've got another fact

for you. So I'm sure you know this, but early descriptions of this slot weren't favorable at all, and according to Atlas Obscura, one of the early nineteenth century natural history books, described them as I've got the quote here, imperfect monsters of creation, equally remarkable in their disgusting appearance

and helpless condition. Pretty rough. And while there's leny of debate over whether slots are cute or not, I mean you see all sorts of debate on the internet, one thing you can't dispute is how they smell, which is good, really, Yeah, because there's such slow moving creatures, they actually don't need sweat glands, and not stinking is actually useful to them because it keeps predators off their scent. Yeah. So, so you're probably wondering what do they actually smell like? And

answer is trees. Mostly they just pick up the scent of wherever they're at, which means their fur gets coated in tree staff And basically they smell like air freshener. Wow, that's pretty good. But actually it leads into my next fact because while they might smell good, I do need to remind you they are covered in algae. Sometimes you'll see them turn the kind of this greenish tint, and especially during the rainy season, And it's because they're basically

part of the trees. But the algae does have some benefits to the sloth. It it kind of helps them camouflage. Also, slows occasionally snack on the algae as a quick treat, and they might even absorb the nutrients from the algae into their skin. But that said, the algae isn't the only thing hanging out on the sloth, so moths sometimes live in there fur as well. That's pretty good. Alright, Gabe, your next fact? Okay, Well I'm Gabe, and my next

fact goes like this. While they are definitely slow moving, wild slots aren't in the same category as koalas those lazy beast sleep eighteen hours a day. Also, I do just want to say, because slaws tend to be slow moving, when they move, it's it's pretty efficient. They're always calculating the fastest way to get somewhere so that they don't need to backtrack as they go, you know, maybe forty

from one tree top to another. But back to the sleepy part about them, slaws only sleep about nine hours a day in the wild, which isn't that much more than most humans. And for the record, this is a fairly recent discovery, coming in the last decade or so, when some scientists put brain caps on them to monitor their brain waves. And that said, what once slaws are living the good life in captivity, they do tend to take advantage of the situation and taking a few more

hours of rest. I like that fact. Game All right, thanks for what's your next one? So, uh, this is what I thought was pretty funny. Slots have all sorts of strange biological features, right, They have these conical teeth. They're related to armadillo and ant eaters, but according to bo Boing, their family tree diverge from those lines about seventy to eighty million years ago. But the weirdest thing to me about them is that they really don't get

fat in a traditional way. So this is again from boo but most mammals have fat tucked around their bodies, but when a slot gets obese. They hold that extra weight and fat deposits in their feet. In their feet, you know that they got fat feet something kind of like. It's both cute and disgusting at the same time, and

useless fat fat, it's fun to say. That's all right. Well, I know we've talked about this before, but no discussion of sloth biology is complete without a little discussion of their pooh dances, which I know we've both seen videos of before, and and slots, which which kind of live in this natural state of constipation. At least according to the Washington Post, they shimmy down their trees once a week to pooh, but the way they do it is

pretty funny. So they sort of cling to the tree and shake their hips, slowly dancing it out of their system in one slow, long co of it. But the big question is why don't they just go from the trees, especially when leaving the tree is actually a dangerous activity for them. That's when the eagles plucked them off for other predators tend to notice them. But there are a few theories why so. Some people think it has to do with mating and attracting a mate to a particular tree.

Some people think it has to do with the moths on their bodies, because the moths lay eggs in their feces. But personally, I think the sloth just enjoys a little dance party of lave. You know, I just need to dance. I don't know, pooh, I guess. So that's my last fact. Okay, Gay, time to close it for us. Here we go last one. Well, this is a little off topic, but I'm sure you

remember the characters Sloth from the Goonies Las. Yeah. Well, if you're wondering what happened to him after the movie, which I know we all have wondered at some point, the IMDb has you covered. According to the novelization of the movie, Chunk's parents adopted Sloth and even through him a bar mets, so he's truly a man. Now that's not a great fact, mean, Gabe closing the show with a great fact about one of my favorite movies as a kid. So I feel like we need to give

him the trophy. Yeah, so, Gabe, if you're listening, feel better. Thank you for the fact, and we'll be back tomorrow with another episode.