SLOTH
INTERPENDENCE
Populations- This species of sloths is one of the main exotic animals that are going extinct. There are less than 100 of them, and their population has a decreasing trend. Their whole population is found on Escudo Island. The Pygmy three-toed sloths are believed to be descendants of the brown-throated three-toed sloths. This population son turned into a new species, the Pygmy three-toed sloth, because of their isolation on the island they are unafraid of humans, and there are a lack of natural predators. They mainly interact with each other as a population, they are always in trees close together.
Communities- Because of their small population their role in the community is not that big, the pygmy three-toed sloths are some of the slowest sloths of their descendants, this makes them helpful to bacteria, they mainly eat leaves from the trees the live in and don’t cause a major threat to any other animals in their community.
Ecosystems- Since the pygmy three-toed sloth was recently founded and such a small population as it is there is not a lot of information about their role in the ecosystem. They mainly live in tropical regions including islands. They are mainly hosts to parasites, may influence vegetation through their eating habits and are prey to many larger predators.
Biomes- These sloths are normally found in the topical areas of the world this specific species on Escudo Island. They live in these regions because of all of the trees, that is where they live for most of their lives, their fur coat gives a place for algae to live and never making it to the ground makes them vulnerable to predators. They are very slow and have a diet of mainly plants, their whole life happens while hanging in a tree.
FLOW OF ENERGY
FOOD CHAIN
ENERGY PYRAMID
Pygmy three-toed sloths get their food and nutrients from the trees they live in, they normally sleep almost all day and eat leaves, shoots and fruit at night. Since they never move they are a home to most parasites and algae that finds a home in their fur. Since they are herbivores they like to stay in the treetops away from the predators, because many of the top carnivores would have a great advantage over them if they were to find them on the main island. Their weak back legs do not helps them on the ground.
A cycling of major nutrients of major nutrients is important for a pygmy three-toed sloth because without plants, fruit, or algae there would be no food for them. They live in the treetops all of their lives and if there were no good leaves are fruit in the trees because of a major cycling of nutrients the pygmy three-toed sloth would starve and go extinct.
SUCCESSION
This is ecological term that refers to the observed process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. This can refer to any environmental changes as well as changes in the animals themselves. Different types of successions such as floods, or forest fires are the types of things that can happen in a biome. Some successional changes that could affect the environment are forest fires, ice ages, floods and earthquakes. All of these are extreme examples of things that could happen to change the environment. Successional changes that would affect the Pygmy three-toed sloth could be floods and forest fires. These changes could affects the habitat of the sloth greatly and cause them to have to adapt and have caused them to adapt to certain situations such as floods. Since these have happened they have become good swimmers with their long arms and claws.
HUMAN IMPACT
The pygmy three -toed sloth is one of the most endangered sloth species today. There are only 100 of them found on an island in Panama and because of their small population there are many precautions taken to better their chances of a long life. However humans still impact them and their environments in positive and negative ways. Some of the main negative effects of human impacts are deforestation as well as hunting, these two things can add more stress to the animals in general. Deforestation is a big problem for the environment considering that most of the island are made up of them, this also affects the sloth's habitat. Many fishermen have also come to this specific island to fish in the oceans and they bring their families that could be using up the animals resources and also causing stress. On the other hand some positive human impacts on the environment and the pygmy three-toes sloth is that Escudo Island has already been designated a protected area and a conservation plan is being constructed now to help maintain the healthy lifestyle of the environment and provide the sloths with a longer life.
PLANT ADAPTAIONS
Since sloth’s main source of food comes from leaves, the well being of plants controls how and if they live. Pygmy sloths are extremely dependent of the Panama forest in which they live in. They feed on the red mangrove tree in which they live in. This tree has gone through great adaptations most visibly noticeable in its roots. They have grown and extended above the water level thus helping the oxygen intake. It also provides add structure and support to the trees. These trees are found on water, so sloths are found in the water too. There is algae in the water (Trichophilus algae). Since birth, the algae has been found on sloths mostly likely transferred from parent to child. They pose no threat to the animal.
PHYSICAL AND BEHAVIORAL ADAPTAIONS
The pygmy three-toed sloth has adapted like any of the other sloth species over the years. For their specific ebiome, the rainforest and many islands they are perfectly adapted. All sloths live in the treetops of many rainforest and because their arms are longer than their legs and their claws are strong and have grown to such lengths it makes it easier for them to hang onto trees. Also despite their slow moving abilities they have become a home to algae that often grows in their fur that helps camouflage them from predators, also since they move so slow this draws the attention away from them. Another ability that they posses is being able to swim so when the rainforest floods they are able to survive. The pygmy three-toed sloth also has behavioral adaptations that affect their lives in the treetops such a very complex digestive system as well as a slow metabolism which helps with being able to stay in the trees longer. They have also adapted to sleeping 15-20 hours a day, with their slow metabolism it keeps them full longer and lets them sleep more. Because of this lazy behavior it makes their life perfect for living in the trees. Pygmy three-toed sloths have adapted to their climate as well as habitat throughout the years physically and behaviorally.