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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

SLOTHS AND MOTHS, ALGAE AND POOP...OH MY!



Hello Everyone!


Krumbs and I have a great science question for you...


Which animal is so lazy and stays so still,
moths and algae live in its fur?

If your answer was the slovenly, slow-moving sloth, you are correct!  The sloth stays high in the trees of the rainforest and moves very slowly.  As a matter of fact, the sloth leaves its treetop home only once each week and you will NEVER believe its reason for leaving!

The sloth leaves the treetops and travels to the rainforest floor to....POOP!  Yep, the sleepy sloth moves in order to poop!  According the website "Live Science!" scientists have recently found out the sloth poops on the ground so that the moths living in its fur can lay eggs in the poop.  When the eggs hatch, the new moths fly up and live on the sloths' fur bringing nutrients to the algae growing on the sloths!  Sloths eat the algae for energy and the whole thing starts again.

The sloth, the moths and the algae live together and help each other and the sloth's bathroom travels keep everything happy and healthy--isn't nature amazing?



Check out the Imagination CafĂ© for more fun animal facts, great stories, and cool career ideas.  You can get there by clicking here.