Punya berbagai macam pertahanan dari ancaman predator lain
Beruang sloth ternyata benar-benar beradaptasi agar dapat bertahan di lingkungannya yang juga terdapat predator alam lain seperti harimau, serigala, maupun beruang hitam Asia. Tidak hanya pada anatomi tubuh, bahkan dari kebiasaan pun mereka sesuaikan untuk meminimalisir ancaman dari predator lain.
Mengutip dari laman Wildlife SOS, bagian-bagian tubuh seperti cakar melengkung dan taring besar dari beruang sloth mereka manfaatkan sebagai mekanisme bertahan dari predator lain ataupun untuk mengintimidasinya.
Sedangkan untuk kebiasaan, kendati tergolong jenis beruang yang paling nokturnal di antara saudaranya yang lain, ternyata beruang sloth dapat menyesuaikan waktu beraktivitas mereka agar dapat meminimalisir pertemuan dengan predator lain.
Ternyata di balik tubuh besar dan garang dari beruang ini, masih tersimpan beberapa fakta lucu dan tentunya menarik untuk kita ketahui. Apakah kamu sudah pernah melihat jenis beruang yang satu ini? Bagikan pengalamanmu di kolom komentar, ya!
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What can we do to protect both species?
These extraordinary creatures’ continued existence hinges significantly on our actions today. This involves adopting more sustainable farming practices and endorsing conservation initiatives that safeguard the natural habitats of these animals from further degradation.
You can support organizations working with this species, like Wildlife SOS, founded in 1995; it has a strong track record in India for rescuing wildlife in distress, including sloth bears, elephants, leopards, and others. Free the Bears is an organization that works to rescue and rehabilitate bears in various Asian countries.
Four species of ground sloths inhabited the United States at the end of the last Ice Age. These were Jefferson's ground sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii), Laurillard's ground sloth (Eremotherium laurillardi), the Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis), and Harlan's ground sloth (Glossotherium harlani). Of these four only two, Jefferson's and Harlan's ground sloths, are found in the midwestern U.S.
Ground sloths were large relatives of the modern two-toed sloths (Choloepus spp.) and three-toed sloths (Bradypus spp.). Unlike modern sloths, which spend most of their time in trees, the ground sloths spent all of their time on the ground. This is fortunate because Jefferson's and Harlan's ground sloth were each about the size of an oxen.
All four species of ground sloth had very large claws. However, all were herbivores. They had relatively small, blunt teeth, which they probably used for browsing on trees and shrubs. The shape of their hip bones indicates that they could stand up on their hind legs. This would allow them to reach high up into trees for the best leaves and twigs.
The picture above shows a reconstruction of Jefferson's ground sloth from the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History.
Kebiasaan memakan serangga sebagai makanan utama
Dengan anatomi tubuh yang mendukung, beruang sloth termasuk ke dalam jajaran hewan myrmecophagous atau pemakan serangga. Biasanya mereka akan menggali dan menyedot sarang semut maupun serangga untuk memenuhi kebutuhan makannya
Menurut laman Smithsonian National Zoo, 95 persen dari makanan beruang sloth adalah serangga. Akan tetapi, bukan berarti mereka tidak memakan makanan lain. Sesekali mereka memakan buah-buahan maupun tanaman lain ketika berada di alam.
Tak hanya itu, mereka juga beberapa kali kedapatan memanjat pohon untuk menjatuhkan sarang lebah ke tanah sebagai pilihan lain dalam makanan mereka.
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Are sloth bears related to sloths?
Contrary to their name, sloth bears and sloths are not closely related, and both belong to entirely different taxonomic orders and families with unique evolutionary histories. For example, sloth bears belong to the order Carnivora, which includes mammals such as dogs, cats, seals, and bears. Within this order, they are also under Ursidae or Bear family.
The name “sloth bear” comes from the bear’s slow-moving behavior and long claws, like a sloth, which led early zoologists and taxonomists to draw parallels between them. However, this similarity is due to convergent evolution, where unrelated species independently develop similar traits in response to similar environments.
Despite these surface resemblances, sloth bears and sloths are genetically and taxonomically distant as well as having strikingly different evolutionary paths.
Sloths, unlike sloth bears, belong to the order Pilosa, sharing it with anteaters and armadillos. Over millions of years, sloths have adapted to a slow-paced arboreal lifestyle, developing features like long arms, curved claws, and a slow metabolism to thrive in treetop habitats where they perform various activities, including eating, sleeping, mating, and giving birth.
Metabolisme Rendah
Sloth bisa mencerna makanannya yang hanya sehelai daun selama 30 hari. Sloth memiliki tingkat metabolisme yang lemah dibandingkan mamalia lainnya. Perut yang terdapat empat bilik sudah penuh secara permanen, yang bahkan bisa mencapai 30 persen massa tubuh mereka.
Group of tree dwelling mammals noted for slowness
Sloths are a Neotropical group of xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside down in the trees of the tropical rainforests of South America and Central America. Sloths are considered to be most closely related to anteaters, together making up the xenarthran order Pilosa.
There are six extant sloth species in two genera – Bradypus (three-toed sloths) and Choloepus (two-toed sloths). Despite this traditional naming, all sloths have three toes on each rear limb – although two-toed sloths have only two digits on each forelimb.[3] The two groups of sloths are from different, distantly related families, and are thought to have evolved their morphology via parallel evolution from terrestrial ancestors. Besides the extant species, many species of ground sloths ranging up to the size of elephants (like Megatherium) inhabited both North and South America during the Pleistocene Epoch. However, they became extinct during the Quaternary extinction event around 12,000 years ago, along with most large animals across the Americas. The extinction correlates in time with the arrival of humans, but climate change has also been suggested to have contributed. Members of an endemic radiation of Caribbean sloths also formerly lived in the Greater Antilles but became extinct after humans settled the archipelago in the mid-Holocene, around 6,000 years ago.
Sloths are so named because of their very low metabolism and deliberate movements. Sloth, related to slow, literally means "laziness", and their common names in several other languages (e.g. German: Faultier, French: paresseux, Spanish: perezoso, Romanian: leneș, Finnish: laiskiainen) also mean "lazy" or similar. Their slowness permits their low-energy diet of leaves and avoids detection by predatory hawks and cats that hunt by sight.[3] Sloths are almost helpless on the ground but are able to swim.[4] The shaggy coat has grooved hair that is host to symbiotic green algae which camouflage the animal in the trees and provide it nutrients. The algae also nourish sloth moths, some species of which exist solely on sloths.[5]
Anatomi tubuh yang unik
Beruang sloth memiliki bulu lebat yang nampak kusut dengan berwarna gelap. Selain itu, pada bagian dada mereka juga memiliki sedikit motif putih berbentuk "V" atau "Y" yang berwarna putih.
Dikutip dari laman National Geographic, bagian moncong berwarna krem dari beruang sloth dirancang sedemikian rupa agar bisa menyesuaikan diri dalam mencari makan. Moncong tersebut berfungsi mirip seperti mesin vacuum yang bisa menyedot maupun meniup tanah secara efektif.
Selain itu, mereka juga dilengkapi cakar melengkung yang berukuran relatif besar untuk ukuran mereka, yaitu sepanjang 3 inci. Tentunya cakar tersebut siap mereka gunakan dalam menghadapi keadaan tertentu.
Perenang yang Baik
Meskipun sloth menjadi hewan terlambat di darat, tetapi saat berada di air, sloth terkenal lebih lincah. Sloth bisa berenang tiga kali lebih cepat dibandingkan saat bergerak di tanah.
Bisa Memutar Kepala 270 Derajat
Sloth berjari tiga memiliki keunikan dibandingkan dengan sloth berjari dua. Sloth spesies ini memiliki tulang leher tambahan yang memungkinkan mereka memutar kepalanya hampir seluruhnya atau sekitar 270 derajat.
Sloth bears….and sloths and bears
Sloth bears got their name in 1791 by English zoologist George Shaw, who encountered the bear and believed the species was related to actual sloths since they shared similar traits, naming them “bear sloths”. Shaw named them Bradypus ursinus, which means something like ‘slow feet bear,’ using the family name of three-fingered sloths, the Genus Bradypus.
The sloth bear goes by many different names throughout the region depending on the language, and once Europeans got involved, the name changed once again. Confusion over whether the bear is a bear or a sloth made it challenging for scientists to classify it under the Latin-based binomial naming system. Once it was indeed determined that it was a bear, they changed the Genus but kept the common name, so “bear sloth” changed to “sloth bear.”
The modern scientific name of the sloth bear, Melursus ursinus, combines Greek and Latin elements. “Melursus” is derived from the Greek “melas” (meaning “black”) and the Latin “ursus” (meaning “bear”), referring to the bear’s dark fur. The specific name “ursinus,” from Latin, translates to “bear-like.”
To add more confusion to the subject, the most common name for sloths in Latin America is ‘oso perezoso’, which means, as you might guess, sloth bear.
Challenges and threats
Both sloth bears and sloths have their own unique set of challenges in the wild. Sloth bears, for example, face deforestation and habitat loss. Forests are cleared for agriculture and urban settlements, resulting in sloth bears losing their home and food sources. Poachers are also an issue since sloth bears’ claws and gallbladders are sold illegally in the wildlife trade business since they are highly valued for medicine and ornamental purposes.
Sloths, both two-fingered and three-fingered, face similar challenges. In the tropical rainforests of Central and South America, rainforests are cut down for logging and converted into farmland and pastures; sloths lose both their homes and food supplies.
Both sloth bears and sloths are grappling with the impacts of human activities that threaten their survival. While each species faces unique challenges based on where and how they live, there is a common thread: most of the hurdles they encounter in the wild can be traced back to human actions.
