Illustration Friday- speed

I thought at first i'd paint something really speedy - a peregrine falcon maybe [fastest animal on the planet , reaching speeds of 200 miles per hour in dives] or the sailfish [fastest fish reaching speeds of almost 70 miles per hour in short bursts ].

I also thought about butterflies that are too quick off the mark to be photographed as i spent some time on Saturday trying to photograph some Aurore de Provence butterflies [Provence orange tip, Anthocharis euphenoides] without even getting close.

In the end I decided to go with one of the slowest creatures - ones with slow and ponderous speed that gives them a great advantage since they are so difficult to see -the sloths.

This one is a two toed sloth - so called becuase the front feet have two toes and long claws. The three toed sloths have three claws on the front but all sloths have 3 toes/claws on the back legs.

Sloths hang upside down most of the time and their specially adapted limbs mean that they cannot walk. If they need to move over the ground they have to use a slithery crawl as their legs won't support their weight, although they are very good swimmers.

They move very, very slowly; only moving one foot at a time. They spend most of thier lives dangling from tree branches , even sleeping [15+ hours] , mating and giving birth in this position.

They eat mainly leaves but will also eat birds eggs , small lizards and bugs. Thier metabolism is very slow and digestion takes a long time. Their body temperature varies according to the air temperature.

Blue-green algae [cyanobacteria] live in the fur of most species of sloth - its a symbiotic relationship - the bacteria have a useful place to grow and the sloths get some camouflage and nutrients during grooming and can even absorb nutrients via the skin.




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