Over a period of five years, PhD candidate Becky Cliffe collected raw data at the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica. She, Professor Rory Wilson and Dr. Mike Scantlebury are currently calculating the rates of oxygen consumption and energy expenditure for sloths. After all, why have sloths evolved to be so slow?
One of their early fascinating discoveries is that sloths regulate their body temperature in the complete opposite manner of most other mammals. The study will examine why this peculiar adaptation serves sloths’ survival.
When published, the eye-opening findings are expected to stun the zoological physiology community, as sloths’ metabolic reactions to external temperature defy what is accepted as normal for other mammals.
Becky Cliffe, Ph.D. Student
Professor Rory Wilson
