1
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Hello.

2
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Well I'm here to talk to you
about my animal muse.

3
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The sloth.

4
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(Laughter)

5
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I've been documenting the strange lives
of the world's slowest mammal

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for the last 10 years.

7
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I still remember the first time I saw one.

8
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I was fascinated by their freaky biology.

9
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I mean, what's not to love
about an animal that's born

10
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with a fixed grin on its face.

11
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(Laughter)

12
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And the need to hug.

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Audience: Aw.

14
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But sloths are massively misunderstood.

15
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They've been saddled with a name
that speaks of sin

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and damned for their languorous lifestyle,

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which people seem to think has
no place amongst the fittest

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in the fast-paced race for survival.

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Well I'm here to tell you
that we've got this animal all wrong.

20
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And how understanding
the truth about the sloth

21
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may help save us and this planet
we both call home.

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I traced sloth [unclear] slander

23
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back to a Spanish
conquistador called Valdes,

24
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who gave the first description of a sloth
in his encyclopedia pf the New World.

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He said the sloth was,

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"The stupidest animal
that can be found in the world...

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I have never seen such and ugly animal
or one that is more useless."

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(Laughter)

29
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Tell us what you really think, Valdes.

30
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(Laughter)

31
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I'd like to have a word
about Valdes' drawing skills.

32
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(Laughter)

33
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I mean, what is that?

34
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(Laughter)

35
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I've never seen an illustration
of a sloth that's more useless.

36
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(Laughter)

37
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But I mean, on the plus side,

38
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he has given the sloth
a remarkably human-like face,

39
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and sloths do have remarkably
human-like faces.

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This sloth I photographed in Costa Rica,
I think looks a lot like Ringo Starr.

41
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(Laughter)

42
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But then, sloths do bear an uncanny
resemblance to the The Beatles.

43
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(Laughter)

44
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Particularly pleased
with Paul, actually, on there.

45
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But, like The Beatles,

46
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sloths are also extremely successful.

47
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They come from an ancient line of mammals
and they were once dozens of species,

48
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including the giant ground sloth,
which was the size of a small elephant,

49
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and one of the only animals big enough

50
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to eat avocado pits whole
and disperse them.

51
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So, some of you have worked out already,

52
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(Laughter)

53
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that means that without sloths,

54
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there might be no avocado on toast today,

55
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leaving hipsters everywhere
totally bereft of breakfast.

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(Laughter)

57
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(Applause)

58
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Today, there are six surviving species
and they fall into two groups.

59
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You've got your bradypus
three-toed sloths,

60
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they are the ones
with The Beatles haircuts

61
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and the Mona Lisa smiles.

62
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Then, there are the two-toed sloths.

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They look a little bit more like a cross
between a Wookiee and a pig.

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They live in the jungles
of Central and South America

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and they're extremely prolific.

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There was a survey
that was done in the 1970s

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in a Panamanian tropical forest,

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that found that sloths were the most
numerically abundant large animal.

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They took up one quarter
of the mammalian biomass.

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Now, that's an awful lot of sloths,

71
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and suggests they're doing
something very right indeed.

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So, what if rather than deriding
the sloth for being different,

73
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we tried to learn from it instead?

74
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We humans are obsessed with speed.

75
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Busyness is a badge of honor

76
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and convenience trumps quality
in our quest for quick.

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Our addiction to the express life
is choking us and the planet.

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We idolize animals like the cheetah,

79
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the Ferrari of the animal kingdom,

80
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capable of doing naught to 60
in three seconds flat.

81
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Well, so what?

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(Laughter)

83
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(Applause)

84
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So what?

85
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The sloth, on the other hand,

86
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can reach a leisurely 17 feet a minute

87
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with the wind behind it.

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(Laughter)

89
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But being fast is costly.

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The cheetah is speedy,
but at the expense of strength.

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They can't risk getting in a fight,

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so they lose one in nine kills
to tougher predators like hyenas.

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No wonder they're laughing.

94
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(Laughter)

95
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The sloth, on the other hand,

96
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has taken a more stealthy
approach to dinner.

97
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They survive by capturing and consuming

98
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static leaves.

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(Laughter)

100
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But you see, leaves don't want
to be eaten any more than antelope do,

101
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so they're loaded full of toxins
and very hard to digest.

102
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So in order to consume them,

103
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the sloth has also
had to become an athlete.

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A digesting athlete.

105
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(Laughter)

106
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The sloth's secret weapon
is a four-chambered stomach

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and plenty of time.

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They have the slowest
digestion rate of any mammal.

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And it can take up to a month
to process a single leaf,

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which gives their liver plenty of time
to process those toxins.

111
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So, sloths aren't lazy.

112
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No, they're busy.

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Digesting.

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(Laughter)

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Yeah, really busy.

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(Laughter)

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Hard at work, that sloth,
very hard at work.

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And of course, leaves
have little calorific value,

119
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so sloths have evolved to spend
as little energy as possible.

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They do about 10 percent of the work
of a similar-sized mammal,

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and survive on as little
as 100 calories a day,

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thanks to some ingenious adaptations.

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The bradypus, three-toed sloths,

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they've got more neck bones
than any other mammal,

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even a giraffe.

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Which means they can turn their head
through 270 degrees

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and graze all around them,

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without having to actually bother
with the effort of moving their body.

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(Laughter)

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It also means that they are
surprisingly good swimmers.

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Sloths can bob along in water

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three times faster
than they can move on land,

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kept afloat by trapped wind.

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(Laughter)

135
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So --

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(Laughter)

137
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sloths are the only mammal that we know of
that don't do flatulence.

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When they need to expel gas,

139
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it's actually reabsorbed
into their blood stream

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and expelled orally
as a sort of mouth fart.

141
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(Laughter)

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Turning their lives upside down
saves further energy.

143
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They have about half the skeletal muscle
of a terrestrial mammal.

144
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They don't really have so many
of the extensor muscles

145
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that are the weight-bearing muscles,

146
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instead they rely on retractor muscles
to pull themselves along.

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They have long hooked claws
and a high fatigue resistance,

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so they can literally hook on
and hang like a happy, hairy hammock,

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for hours on end.

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And sloths can do almost anything
in this inverted position.

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They sleep, eat and even give birth.

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Their throat and blood vessels
are uniquely adapted

153
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to pump blood and to swallow food
against the force of gravity,

154
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they have sticky bids on their ribs

155
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that prevent their enormous stomach
from crushing their lungs.

156
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And their fur grows
the opposite direction,

157
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so they can drip dry
after a tropical drenching.

158
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The only problem is,
if you turn a sloth the other way up,

159
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gravity removes its dignity.

160
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(Laughter)

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They can't hold themselves upright.

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And so they drag their bodies along
as if mountaineering on a flat surface.

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And I think this is why
the early explorers like Valdes

164
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thought so poorly of them,

165
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because they were observing sloths
the wrong way up and out of context.

166
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I've spent many happy hours
mesmerized by moving sloths.

167
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Their lack of muscle hasn't impeded
their strength or agility.

168
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Nature's zen masters of mellow
move like "Swan Lake" in slow mo,

169
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(Laughter)

170
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with the core control
of a Thai-chi master.

171
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This one has fallen asleep mid-move,
which is not uncommon.

172
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(Laughter)

173
00:09:05,728 --> 00:09:07,197
But you're probably wondering,

174
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how does a dangling bag
of digesting leaves avoid being eaten?

175
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Good question.

176
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Well, this is one
of the sloth's main predators,

177
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it's the Harpy eagle.

178
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It can fly at speeds
of up to 50 miles per hour

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has talons the size of a grizzly bear's,

180
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razor-sharp eye sight,

181
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and that ring of weathers focuses sound,

182
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so that it can hear
the slightest leaf rustle.

183
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The sloth, on the other hand,
has poor hearing, bad eye sight,

184
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and running from danger
is clearly not an option.

185
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No, they survive by wearing
an invisibility cloak

186
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worthy of Harry Potter.

187
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Their fur has grooves
that attract moisture

188
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and act as tiny hydroponic
gardens for algae,

189
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and they also attract
a host of invertebrates.

190
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So they are their own, slow moving,
miniature ecosystem.

191
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They become one with the trees.

192
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And we think that
their movements are so slow,

193
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they slip under the radar
of the monstrous Harpy

194
00:10:06,863 --> 00:10:10,236
as it's flying about the canopy,
scanning for action.

195
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Sloths are stealth ninjas,

196
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and they rarely leave
the safety of the canopy

197
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except to defecate,

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which they do about once a week
at the base of a tree.

199
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Now, this risky and energetic behavior
has long been a mystery,

200
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and there are lots of theories
as to why they do it.

201
00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:36,288
But I think they're leaving surreptitious
scented messages for potential mates.

202
00:10:36,862 --> 00:10:41,855
Because, you see, sloths are generally
silent, solitary creatures.

203
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Except for when the female is in heat.

204
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She will climb to the top of a tree,
and scream for sex.

205
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In D sharp.

206
00:10:50,751 --> 00:10:52,728
(Laughter)

207
00:10:52,752 --> 00:10:53,902
Don't believe me?

208
00:10:55,292 --> 00:10:56,825
(Sound of sloth scream)

209
00:10:57,300 --> 00:10:58,450
D sharp.

210
00:10:59,085 --> 00:11:02,065
This and only this note
will get the male's attention.

211
00:11:02,378 --> 00:11:04,841
It mimics the sound
of the [unclear] fly catcher,

212
00:11:04,865 --> 00:11:06,859
so the female remains covert,

213
00:11:06,883 --> 00:11:10,350
even when yodeling for sex
at the top of her lungs.

214
00:11:10,825 --> 00:11:15,412
Her clandestine booty calls
will carry for miles across the canopy,

215
00:11:15,436 --> 00:11:18,922
and males will beat
a slow path towards her.

216
00:11:18,946 --> 00:11:23,239
(Laughter)

217
00:11:23,263 --> 00:11:27,978
I think scented messages in her dung
will help send Romeo up the right tree

218
00:11:28,002 --> 00:11:31,652
so that he doesn't waste precious energy
scaling the wrong one.

219
00:11:32,807 --> 00:11:36,244
Sex, by the way, is the only thing
that sloths do swiftly.

220
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I've seen them do it in the wild,

221
00:11:37,903 --> 00:11:41,339
and it's over and done
within a matter of seconds.

222
00:11:41,363 --> 00:11:44,061
But then, why waste precious energy on it?

223
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Particularly after that journey.

224
00:11:46,117 --> 00:11:47,799
(Laughter)

225
00:11:47,823 --> 00:11:49,006
Unlike other mammals,

226
00:11:49,030 --> 00:11:54,268
sloths don't also waste time maintaining
a constant warm body temperature.

227
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Energy from the sun is free,

228
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so they bask in the sun like lizards,

229
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and wear an unusually think coat
for the tropics, to keep that heat in.

230
00:12:03,490 --> 00:12:07,275
Sloths have a freakishly low metabolism.

231
00:12:07,585 --> 00:12:10,157
And we think that this might be
one of the reasons

232
00:12:10,181 --> 00:12:12,646
that they can sometimes
recover from injuries

233
00:12:12,670 --> 00:12:14,632
that would kill most animals.

234
00:12:15,300 --> 00:12:18,331
This sloth recovered
from a double amputation,

235
00:12:18,355 --> 00:12:21,982
and I've known sloths
that have managed to survive

236
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even power line electrocutions.

237
00:12:24,680 --> 00:12:30,196
And we now think that the low metabolism
may well be key to surviving extinction.

238
00:12:30,631 --> 00:12:34,101
Researchers at Kansas University,
who were studying molluscs,

239
00:12:34,125 --> 00:12:38,553
found that a high metabolism
predicted which species of mollusc

240
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had gone extinct.

241
00:12:41,609 --> 00:12:44,585
Sloths have been around on this planet
in one shape or another,

242
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for over 40 million years.

243
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The secret to their success
is their slothful nature.

244
00:12:52,490 --> 00:12:56,339
They are energy-saving icons.

245
00:12:57,022 --> 00:12:59,427
And I founded the Sloth
Appreciation Society

246
00:12:59,451 --> 00:13:05,283
to both promote and protect
their slow, steady, sustainable lives.

247
00:13:06,712 --> 00:13:08,712
I'm a pretty speedy character.

248
00:13:09,529 --> 00:13:10,966
I'm sure you've guessed.

249
00:13:10,990 --> 00:13:14,434
And the sloths have taught me
a lot about slowing down.

250
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And I think that the planet would benefit

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if we all took a slowly digested
leaf out of their book.

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How about we all embrace our inner sloth,

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by slowing down, being more mindful,

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reducing wasteful convenience,

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being economical with our energy,

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recycling creatively

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and reconnecting with nature.

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Otherwise, I fear,

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it will be us humans that turn out to be
the stupidest animals

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that can be found in the world.

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Thank you very much.

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May the sloth be with you.

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(Applause)