Yes, I titled this blog post "Defecating Sloths". :-) I recently wrote a post sharing with readers the very cool podcast called BrainStuff. They recently had a short, less than 10 minute podcast, on the pooping habits of sloths. Now that is a cool podcast topic!
So what did I learn? Sloths poop once a week. That's it! And when they do poop, they can lose 1/3 of their body mass and you can see the change in shape of their abdomen. Yikes! What's more, energy is a very valuable resource for sloths as they do not have much to expend and pooping takes quite a bit of their energy. Instead of remaining in the safety of trees to poop, sloths slowly climb down to the ground, go poo, and then climb back up. They intentionally place themselves in danger to take a poop. As a result, up to 50% of sloth deaths occur when they are attacked by predators while pooping! Pooping is a very dangerous activity for sloths!
Science, sloths, and poop! Now that's a great podcast! Check it out yourself here:
Why Are Sloths' Toilet Habits So Dangerous?
The podcast is only 4 minutes in length so there is no excuse not to listen to it now!
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