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Moment of Um

How do sloths sleep upside down without letting go?

Moment of Um

American Public Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.41.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2024

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sloths are really, really good at hanging upside down. They practically make it seem effortless! Why is that? Do they love it? Is the world just more fun from that angle? We asked zoologist Lucy Cooke to help us figure it out.


Got a question that’s clawing at your brain? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and hang in there - we’ll help you find the answer.

Transcript

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0:00.0

From the brains behind brains on, this is the moment of um.

0:05.6

Answering those questions that make you go.

0:08.6

Ah, um, um, um, um, um, um, um.

0:11.8

Um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Moment of Am I'm comes to you from APM studios.

0:25.0

I'm Anna Weggle.

0:26.0

Um.

0:29.0

Growing up, gym class was pretty fun.

0:31.0

We would play volleyball, run outside on the track. My personal

0:34.3

favorite was always bad men, you know with the birdies and the rackets. But there was

0:38.0

one sport, if you can call it a sport, I guess, that was always so tough for me. It wasn't pull-ups per se but it was kind of

0:45.2

of pull-ups adjacent. The gym teacher would set up the pull-up bar in the middle of the gym

0:49.5

and then one by one we had to take turns just hanging from the bar.

0:54.9

And he would time us and it was oddly hard.

0:57.6

I don't think I could hang for very long, maybe 30 seconds, maybe less.

1:01.0

I'm glad those days are over. You know who would absolutely crush this exercise though?

1:05.8

Sloths. They even sleep upside down. It seems so effortless to them. Why is that?

1:12.3

My name is Levi from Knoxville, Tennessee.

1:15.0

My question is, if Salaf sleep upside down,

1:18.0

why don't their hands let go when they are sleeping?

1:20.0

Well, that is a brilliant and very thoughtful question so thank you for asking me that.

1:29.3

My name is Lucy Cook and I'm a zoologist and founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society.

1:35.0

First of all, sloths have what's known as high fatigue resistant, so they're

...

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