News Animals

Sloths, moths, algae may live in three-way benefit pact

Insects and green slime may justify slow mammal’s risky descent from trees

MAMMAL’S LITTLE HELPERS  To make a living as one of the rare mammals that eats only tree leaves, a brown-throated three-toed sloth may be getting some help from mating moths and sloth-specialist algae.

Christian Mehlführer/Wikimedia Commons

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

A tree-dwelling sloth’s climb down to ground level for its weekly bathroom break may not be pointless daintiness.