As the school year picks up and the weather cools down, the Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) is excited to unveil its new exhibit—Survival of the Slowest. What’s so cool about it? A lot of things, but for starters, it features more than twenty live animals, including a twotoed sloth named Sash.
The traveling exhibition is from a company based in Canada called Little Ray’s Nature Centre, and not only are they bringing animals to the RMSC, but an animal educator is coming as well. Calvin Uzelmeier, RMSC’s director of exhibits, explains how unique of an experience this exhibit is.
“Every time you come to visit the exhibit, you can learn about the animals directly from the animal educator,” Uzelmeier says. “There’ll be live animal presentations every day, and they’ll even bring some of the animals out for meet and greets. You’ll get to meet Sash and maybe feed him too.”
But what does survival of the slowest really mean? Think of the saying “slow and steady wins the race.” The exhibit is all about animal adaptations and how sometimes it’s the smallest, slowest, and weakest animal that comes out on top. It looks at why and how these animals have developed and how they use these adaptations, specifically ones related to speed, to survive.
Let’s take a look at a few of the adaptions that help sloths like Sash thrive in the wild.
One might think that being slow would make it easier for a predator to catch a sloth, but it also makes them harder to see. They don’t make any fast movements that would attract a predator’s attention. It also saves energy.
“They are so slow that they will actually grow algae on their fur. This creates camouflage, making it even harder for predators to find them,” Uzelmeier says.
Sloths can be found in Central and South American tropical forests, although their ancestors originally inhabited North America. They were built for trees and spend their days snoozing in the canopy high off the ground.
“There’s really only two reasons for a sloth to go to the ground,” Uzelmeier says. “One is to mate, and the other is to use the bathroom. So, you’d think they would have to go to the ground a lot, but the only go to the bathroom every ten to twenty days.”
While Sash will certainly be an exciting part of the exhibit, lots of other animals will be there too—an emperor scorpion, ball python, veiled chameleon, hedgehog, and bearded dragon are just a few. There will be a mix of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.
Most of these animals aren’t native to Rochester—there definitely aren’t any sloths in the trees on Park Avenue—but Rochester is home to the woodcock. Woodcocks are little birds with long bills that are native to the Great Lakes region, and they’re recognized as the slowest flying birds in the world. The RMSC will be including a Woodcock display within their Survival of the Slowest exhibit so visitors can see how these adaptations connect to local animals too. While unique adaptations are at the core of this exhibit, the RMSC and Little Ray’s Nature Centre strive to create educational experiences to help others develop a deeper appreciation for the world. “Animal wildlife conservation is a really important message for Little Ray’s and its exhibitory. We want everyone to take away an appreciation for these animals and understand their importance and the need to take care of them,” Uzelmeier says. Survival of the Slowest will run October through April. Whether Sash is out to say “hi,” or a scorpion is out getting fed, guests will get to experience and learn something new every visit. Find more information at rmsc.org
- Two-toed sloths weigh between nine and seventeen pounds and are roughly the same size and shape of a small dog.
- Two-toed sloth’s teeth never stop growing, so they rely on plants and food to wear them down.
- Sloths typically sleep for fifteen hours per day
- Two-toed sloths spend most of their lives hanging from trees.
- The lifespan of two-toed sloths in human care is about sixteen-yearsold, however, the oldest sloth on record was forty-nine-year-old and died in the Smithsonian’s National Zoo
