FlipFact of the Day: No other mammal is known to digest food as slowly as a sloth does. In fact, it can take this peculiar creature a month (or more) to digest a single leaf. Thus, the sloth eats relatively little, and manages to extract every last nutrient from its sparse meal over the course of its extremely long digestion.
Sloths have an extremely slow metabolic rate, which accounts for their sluggardly pace. Interestingly, their signature sluggishness is quite possibly their greatest survival trick, as it renders them effectively invisible to many of their natural predators.
Today’s Science History Milestone: On August 16, 1989, a solar flare resulted in a geomagnetic storm. This, in turn, affected microchips, bringing Toronto’s stock market trading to a grinding halt.
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Cover: Christian Melfuhrer/Wikimedia Commons
References
- http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20140916-the-truth-about-sloths
Author: Mikael Angelo Francisco
Bitten by the science writing bug, Mikael has years of writing and editorial experience under his belt. As the editor-in-chief of FlipScience, Mikael has sworn to help make science more fun and interesting for geeky readers and casual audiences alike.
