"Jim Menegay"  wrote in message
news:c5f7ar$kau$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> Anthony Cerrato  wrote in message
news:...
> > Hmm...quoting from that reference: "Scientists think
sloths
> > may get nutrition from the algae when they groom
> > themselves."
> > Can someone in genetic engineering work on this for homo
> > sap? I can save a lot of money on salad!
> > ....tonyC
>
> My compliments to spam_bait, and everyone else who has
participated on
> this thread, for a fun and informative discussion.  I wish
all threads
> worked like this one has.  I hate to see this thread end,
so I will
> make a desparate attempt to keep it alive.
>
> My sole encounter with a three-toed sloth took place many
years ago
> as I was driving an army truck along a narrow road in the
Panamanian
> jungle.  A sloth was in the process of crossing the road
ahead of me,
> and as it seemed to have the right of way, I stopped to
observe.
>
> I can vouch for the fact that the sloth not only appeared
green, it
> also smelled green.  I estimate its crawling speed, under
stress, at
> roughly 10 inches per minute.  This was not a brief
encounter.
>
> Eventually, having grown tired of waiting, I decided to
help the sloth
> achieve the relative safety of the other side of the road.
So I picked
> the sloth up, holding it by the only part that seemed
relatively clean -
> one of its enormous toenails.  The sloth immediately
shifted into
> counterattack mode.  Have you ever had nine fearsome claws
converging on
> your arm at an average speed of 20 inches per minute?
(Years later,
> I felt a strange sense of deja vu while watching the movie
"A Fish
> Called Wanda".  Remember the scene where the Kevin Kline
character
> is attacked by someone driving a paving roller?).
>
> In any case, it occurs to me that the sloth is fairly well
camoflauged
> from its natural predators.  Something that looks like an
epiphytic
> plant, smells like an epiphytic plant, and moves at a
maximum speed
> not much greater than the growth rate of an epiphytic
plant - such a
> beast must be almost invisible to the nervous system of
your typical
> hungry jaguar.
>
> It further occurs to me that, speaking ecologically rather
than
> taxonomically, the sloth actually IS an epiphyte, rather
than an
> animal.

Good story! It is indeed interesting that creatures can have
multiple modes of camouflage--the thought had not really
ever occurred to me, except possibly in passing. But you
have a good point that "...speaking ecologically rather than
taxonomically, the sloth actually IS an epiphyte, rather
than an animal."

For an animal this slow, with low metabolism and marginal
defenses, the utility and importance of this mechanism for
survival has to be tremendous. Similar mechanism exist for
certain insects and other critters, hiding as leafs, rocks,
etc.

Now that I'm thinking about it, is this what started many
higher animals on the road to "deceit" and "betrayal"
strategies as a means to defeat predators/enemies, even when
such animals progress into social cultures?
.....tonyC
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