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Originally Posted by Radar Chief
Ever smell one? Notice how many of them have a green tint? That’s fungus growing in their fur.
Nothing, not even starving hyenas, wants to eat a sloth.
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Algae, and a whole lot else. Sloths have their own freakin ecosystem in their fur...
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The fur of a sloth provides an unique relationship to many species. In fact, there is actually a whole ecosystem thriving throughout this coarse fur. First of all, the sloth has formed a relationship with several species of cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae). The cyanobacteria that live in the fur of the sloth offer a form of camoflage. Not only does this algae provide camoflage but it inevitabley attracts a host of other organisms. One study found 950 beetles living on a single sloth. That’s right, 950 beetles crawling all over and feasting on the cyanobacteria. It doesn’t stop there though, there is a particular type of moth that depends on the sloth to survive. This moth also lives in the fur and when the sloth heads to the ground, the moth will leave very quickly to lay its eggs in the dung before catching a ride back up the tree on the sloth. The eggs will hatch and the caterpillars will turn to moths and eventually find their own sloth ecosystem to live in.
http://www.wild-facts.com/tag/sloth-fur/
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