A Creepy Crawly Symbiotic Sanctuary

The Sloth

He hangs from a loft,

infested by a moth.

His face has no forehead or chin,

but he carries it off,

the loveable sloth,

for his rest is a hug and a grin.

-Liz Brownlee (Pinterest)

The Sloth is a complex, gentle, and commensal mammal residing primarily in the Central and South American jungles. It weighs up to 17 pounds, is 24-34 inches long ( the two-toed sloths are slightly larger than the three-toed sloths), and has long limbs, small ears, and a rounded head.

Although the luscious, thick, leaf-laden trees of the jungle provide its sustenance, the sloth prefers to hang upside down for most of the day, secured by extraordinarily long claws. However, these claws are difficult for the sloth to motivate on the forest floor to defecate. The sloth’s inability to see well or move quickly makes the journey to the ground as well as above, vulnerable to predators such as the Harpy the most powerful and vicious eagle in the world.

The Sloth is heterothermic and moves slowly because its metabolism is half the rate of a mammal its size. A sloth’s body temperature can fluctuate from 86 to 93 degrees while dipping as low as 63 degrees when in a state of torpor.

Host to a Strange Symbiotic World

I’ve always known that Sloths are considered the “Slowest Mammal in the World”, and even spotted several while visiting Costa Rica, but never in my wildest dreams could I imagine a more bizarre existence.

Like the rare sighting of a leaf turning color in the fall, the anti-social Sloth moves so slowly it’s undetectable when it does. Because of its languidness, the sloth’s body becomes a smorgasbord to hundreds of insects working together in a peaceful co-existence. For example, the exclusive colonization of the phoretic moth Crypolosio Choloepi Dyar, the nutrient-filled green algae growing to produce life-saving camouflage; and the parasitic orthopods such as mosquitos, sandflies, triatomine bugs, lice, ticks, and mites that feast on its blood.

The Crytosis Choloepi Dyar Moth

One curious moth, the Crytisus Chloepi Dyar, interacts exclusively with the brown-haired sloth in a symbiotic relationship. Not only does the moth need the Sloth’s dung to incubate its eggs and protect its larvae from avian predators it also hitches a ride down to the dung. For food, the moth sucks the secretions from the sloth’s eyes and skin with its proboscis feeding tube. The moth then contributes back to the Sloth by depositing nitrogen into the fur enhancing the growth of green algae and its protective camouflage which allows the sloth the ability to blend into the rainforest canopy.

Algae is a loose term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms with chlorophyll properties. Fungi is a prophytic and parasitic spore-producing eukaryotic filamentous organism that lacks chlorophyll. The focus of algae and fungi on a sloth’s hair is quite interesting. The hair under a microscope shows microscopic cracks. These cracks create the perfect environment for algae and fungi to live. Fungi provide shelter to algae whereas algae provides nutrition to fungi and the sloth provides a home for both. Not only does this camouflage make the sloth look like part of the foliage, it does not have a body odor but takes on the scent of the jungle, adding one more layer of defense against its many predators.

Anthropods Galore

Sloths provide a home for an abundant variety of arthropods, which include blood-sucking and biting flies: mosquitoes, sandflies, triatomine bugs, lice, ticks, and mites. Most of these insects do not harm the sloth but seem to coexist amicably within its symbiotic landscape. Anthropods on humans are another story.

The Dangers

While Sloths appear cute and harmless and most of the time they are, sloths can be provoked into biting and clawing if threatened. Trend lightly before any interaction with any sloth, the consequences could be fatal. Sloths attract a variety of arthropods undeterred, but when interacting with a human can transmit arthropod-borne viruses as well as the flagellate protozoan causing leishmaniasis, as well as trypanosomes and the protozoan carinii.

Conclusion

Sloths are best left in the jungle, alone but happy with all their creepy crawly friends. Observe from a distance and don’t touch.

Interesting Note: The Prehistoric Giant Ground Sloth predecessor to the small tree sloth, may well have met its extinction by drinking tainted water polluted by their own feces.

References

1..https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/ice-age-graveyard-discovered-containing-22-giant-sloths-preserved-in-their-own-feces

2.https://bigthink.com/hard-science/giant-ground-sloths-poop/

3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptoses_choloepi

4.https://www.google.com/search?q=do+sloths+bite+or+claw+humans&oq=do+sloths+bite+or+claw+humans&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigAdIBCDkyODJqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

5.https://www.scie.br/j/bjmbr/a/cv8SZN9QjLgp9WH3hSnpWCx/#:~:text=Sloths%20are%20hosts%20to%20a,and%20the%20protozoan%20Pneumocystis%20carinii.

6.https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/flagellate#:~:text=Flagellates%20are%20protozoans%20with%20one,heterotrophic%2C%20parasitic%2C%20and%20symbiotic.

7..https://slothconservation.org/with-a-little-help-from-my-friends-sloths-moths-and-algae/#:~:text=Sloths%20have%20a%20mutualistic%20ectosymbiotic,best%20defense%20against%20predation%20%E2%80%93%20camouflage.

8.https://toucanrescueranch.org/2022/07/i-want-to-hold-a-sloth-why-you-should-never-ever-touch-sloths/#:~:text=Two%2Dfingered%20sloths%20can%20bite,could%20even%20lose%20a%20limb!

9.. Tree Sloth Images: Google images

10. Harpy Image: Google images

11. Image of Giant Ground Sloth: Sloth Conservation Foundation