The act of pooping does not kill them – instead, it is the attacks of predators that catch them when they are in such a vulnerable situation, are basically defenseless, and are unable to escape from the danger.Īfter doing some searching, I was finally able to find a video of a sloth pooping that did not show any of the “details”. Sadly, about half of sloth deaths occur when they are on the ground.For those 10 days, the ladies urinate and defecate every single day, and it’s always at the base of the same tree. The Washington Post states that “Female sloths, it seems, break the once-a-week rule when they go into heat, or estrus.Perhaps it all gets saved up for the “big one”. Despite the fact that sloths take such huge “dumps”, they do not fart.With each bowel movement that sloths have, they can lose over 30% of their body weight – yikes!.They typically make their way down to the forest floor to relieve their backed-up bowels, and once they get there, they do a little “poo dance” while digging a small hole to defecate inside.” According to Mental Floss, “Two-toed sloths often let ‘er rip from the trees, but three-toed sloths follow a bizarre routine that has baffled scientists.While doing my research for this article, I uncovered some additional information that I found rather interesting. Yet this remains one of the biggest mysteries surrounding sloth behaviour and one that scientists have struggled to explain for decades.” In discussing this, The Sloth Conservation Foundation states the following: “So why bother? There must be a huge selective advantage to this weird weekly routine – it should be obvious. Well, it turns out that others have also asked these same questions and based on the research that I did, no one seems to have a definitive answer. So, based on the previous information provided, would it not make sense (and be simpler and safer) for all sloths to just poop while they are in the trees? Why would some of these sloths choose to expend all of this energy and put themselves in such a dangerous situation just to poop on the ground? So….Why Would Some Sloths Choose To Poop On The Ground? Add in the fact that they have bad eyesight and cannot hear very well and you have a recipe for disaster. Sloths have an incredibly difficult time walking on the ground and are easy prey while they are there. More information about this can be found in my article titled, “ Sloth Predators – There Are Several Of Them“. There are three main predators of sloths – jaguars, ocelots, and harpy eagles. They are even acutely aware of this vulnerability that they face and will be more “on edge” during this time. While on the ground, they are very vulnerable to attacks from other animals during this time. The safest place for sloths to be is high up in the trees and the most dangerous place for them to be is on the ground. The Dangers That Sloths Face When They Poop Oftentimes, they will also have a favorite tree picked out as a place to poop. Once or twice a week, some of these sloths will make this incredible journey. And when it is time to poop, these sloths are very picky as they insist on doing it on the ground.Īs the slowest-moving mammal (and one of the slowest-moving animals) on the entire planet, it can take quite some time (and use up a lot of their energy) for sloths to take this trip from high in the trees all the way down to the ground below. It is rare for sloths to leave the comfort and protection of their natural habitat in the trees, but there is one main reason that some of them do leave there….and that is to poop. So many of the activities that they do is done in those trees while upside down including eating, sleeping, mating, and giving birth. Sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside down in trees. So, let’s talk about….uhmmmm….poop.Īre We Really Going To Talk About Poop Here?!?! If nothing else, I hope that this article provides you with some interesting content. By the end of the article, I will have (hopefully) answered our question and maybe even taught you a thing or two. So, that is the topic of this article and it will be written in the following way: I will discuss how sloths go about “doing their business”, I will talk about a huge risk that sloths face when doing that business, and I will end with a little bit of “poop information”. However, after doing some research, I have discovered some information that I found quite interesting (and that I hope you do, too). What kind of question is that – do sloths die when they poop? Initially, the question may seem like a random, strange, and crazy one to ask – and perhaps it is.
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