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#
of species of sloth in Costa Rica
2
Sloth's
land top speed
520 feet/hour
Sloths
seen thus far
2
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Lesson
Plans
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Pika
spots our first sloth!
As
we were driving down to the coast today, Pika aburptly
stopped the car by the side of the road. We pulled over,
and Pika told us to look for the animal in the tree.
Erik, Dave, and I spent about 5 minutes searching the
treetops for any sign of life. Pika laughed, and repeatidly
asked, "Have you seen it yet? Do you give up, yet?" |
Click To Enlarge
Pika Spots a Critter from the car
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Click To Enlarge
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We
tried desperately, and then finally gave up. Pika had
seen a three-toed sloth high in a Cecropia Tree, while
keeping his eyes on the road, and we couldn't even see
while stopped on the side of the road. Pika got out
his spotting scope, a small telescope, and we were able
to see the sloth clear as day. It was a female, because
we could also the small face of a baby clinging to its
mother.
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I
think sloths are some of the coolest animals found in
Costa Rica. To see one living naturally in the trees
was really amazing. It was our first encounter with
a larger mammal since we arrived in Costa Rica. Pika
also dis-spelled a few rumors of sloths. We know that
sloths are the slowest mammals on Earth, but they are
not as slow as we once thought. Just recently, a team
of scientists proved that sloths can travel up to 520
feet per hour! So, it would take a sloth about 10 hours
to travel a mile. That's not very fast, but it's faster
than we originally thought they traveled.
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Sloths
also can be easily found in Cecropia trees. They seem to like
them the best, though scientists don't quite know why. Sloths
are herbivores, living mostly on the leaves of trees. Being
an herbivore means that you don't often get enough protein
in your diet. This makes most mammilian herbovores fairly
slow animals. Cows, horses, and deer are fairly slow animals
for their size. They can move quickly when they want to, but
mostly prefer to stay pretty still. The same applies to a
sloth. They choose to stay still, rather than expend too much
energy moving quickly.
Critters
of Costa Rica Index
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