I’m not prone to posting cutesy videos for the sake of cutesy videos, but today I’m making an exception.
Why? Because I can.
Sloths are a fantastic reminder of just how cool and varied life on this planet can get. But apart from being absolutely adorable, there’s something else you should know about sloths.
They’re a whole ecosystem unto themselves.
See, sloths hang around in trees and move at a snail’s pace. Well, a sloth’s pace. You get it. They leave their tree only to go to the bathroom, which they do only about once a week. Inside a sloth’s fur are sloth moths. There are only 3 species of sloth moths and they only live on sloths.
So, when a sloth makes its weekly trip down the tree to the loo, the sloth moth flies out of the sloth’s fur and hops onto the fresh dung. It lays its eggs onto the new food source (mmm?) and eventually the sloth returns back up the tree.
When the eggs hatch, the sloth moth larvae eat the sloth pellets. When they’re fully grown, they fly up to the same sloth and start living in its fur, just like it’s mom.
Sloth moths aren’t the only thing living on sloths either. Because they move so slowly and don’t really go for personal hygiene, algae is able to grow on their backs. Sloths are literally living gardens. This algae is food to none other than, you guessed it – the sloth moths.
I’ve got some good news and some great news today, annnnd it just might happen to involve some free stuff for you, too!
Some of you might recall my post about New Zealand travel secrets. (If not, that’s okay I won’t track you down or anything). Well, the nice folks at Tripbase have recruited me, and along with a group of other authors and bloggers they’ve put together a series of travel ebooks. Hurrah ebooks!
That’s the good news. The great news #1 is that these books are available free to you. Great news #2 is that for every person that nabs one, they’re going to donate $1 to Charity:Water. That’s something worth celebrating.
I know my readers are a well informed crew, so I don’t have to tell you that fresh water is a privilege that many people on this planet don’t have.
In fact, almost one billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water.
One billion.
To top if off, this lack of clean water kills more people than all forms of violence, including war, and causes 80% of all disease.
But you can help.
What you need to know:
For every downloaded ebook, a $1 donation is made to Charity:Water – these fine people work to build freshwater wells and provide clean drinking water to those in developing nations
Charity:Water ensures that 100% of donations directly fund water projects.
Our target is to build 4 freshwater wells, to provide clean water for an entire school for the next 20 years.
All aboard?
Click here to grab your free ebooks (there are 7 for you!) and join the growing group of people helping provide life saving fresh water to those who need it.
Oh, and feel free to pass this page along to friends to get the ball rolling, hmm? Let’s get this party started!
When I say the words “industrious real estate tycoon”, you’ll probably conjure up images of that oddly haired fellow who’s always saying “You’re fired” on national television.
Yes, Donald Trump might be awesome, but is he awesome as seen from space?
I didn’t think so.
Check this out. Scientists have discovered the world’s largest beaver dam – which sounds relatively unimpressive, until you realize the dam thing (har har) can be seen from space.
You already why beavers rock, but this dam takes architecture to the extreme. Located in Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta, it measures 2,800 feet. To put that in perspective, that’s 8 football fields. Or, 2,800 rulers.
This slams the previous world record holder by close to 200 metres!
So, the next time you’re poring over NASA images, you can show off and pinpoint one of nature’s great marvels.
No word yet on whether the beavers are looking to expand on their franchise, but I hear Trump is in talks with them to head up his Alberta division.
