Why Did the Three-Toed Sloth Cross the Road?

Well, actually, we have no idea, but we wish they wouldn’t! They might get hit by a car – these creatures are slow enough to make your grannie look like an marathon runner! These guys normally live high in the treetops of warm-climate countries, coming down to the ground only about once a week; otherwise, the tree protects them from most of their predators. So really, they haven’t evolved with a need to move faster. Want to know another interesting fact about them? The three-toed sloth is so slow that algae grows on its fur! Eww! The greenish color on their fur, though, actually provides them with a camouflage: because they don’t move quickly and are tinted green, they look like a cluster of leaves.

The sloth in the video below must have gotten lost, then! Watch it and tell us why you think he’s crossing the road!

The Saga of the Leafy Seadragon

The leafy seadragon could be, and is easily, mistaken for a piece of floating sea weed, hence its name. Its camouflage abilities surpass even that of the mighty chameleon – but believe it or not, this creature’s fins are almost completely transparent, which is what helps create the appearance of sea weed.  You want to know what’s even cooler, in my opinion? The males give birth! Want to see this fascinating deep-sea Australian creature yourself? Watch the video below!

No, It’s Not Dobby from Harry Potter…

We’re on a primate kick here at WWC, so here’s our second unusual primate of the week! Although this little guy kind of looks like Dobby, the aye-aye is actually a lemur (which is a type of primate). Check them out – what do you notice that makes them stand out?

The aye-aye hails from Madagascar and has several features that elevate it to Weird n’ Wild Creatures status: first of all, it’s a nocturnal (meaning it stays up all night), which is pretty cool. Secondly, it has this amazing way of finding food: it knocks on trees until it locates an insect nest; then, it uses its creepily long middle finger like a frog would use its tongue, extending it’s appendage into the nest before shish kabobing all the insects, then slowly savoring them … yum … raw beetles …And believe it or not, it’s one of only two animals on the planet known to eat like this (the other a species of possum).

Cool, huh? We leave you with one last picture we love of this guy, just in case you didn’t get a close enough look at him in the first picture:

Love for Lorises

True confession: We here at Weird and Wild Creatures are totally, madly, can’t-stop-watching-these-videos in love with the slow loris.

But what is the slow loris, you might ask? Well, let us introduce you to the world’s cutest animal, a creature too cute for it’s own safety, because if I had one of these guys I would snuggle it senseless. The slow loris is a primate from South and Southeast Asia, and if you were to ever put a bunch of primates together in a room, you’d recognize slow lorises for their enormous eyes. Buuuut don’t let their melt-your-heart adorableness trick you – slow lorises aren’t all fuzz and big blinking innocent eyes; if provoked, they have a toxic bite, rare for a primate. And now wait, they are about to get even cooler: the toxin in their mouth is produced by licking a gland in their arm, which when mixed with saliva activates it. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could lick your armpit and that would make, say, fireballs shoot from your mouth? Or laser beams?

Alright so – drumroll please – below is a video of the slow loris, our unofficial mascot – check it out for yourself and get your “aww” ready: