Photo: María C. Bastidas-Domínguez et al
Watch the video: sloth drives away big cat.
Who would have thought it – even sloths can get their hands on it very quickly!
These are very rare images recorded by the camera of a reserve in August 2022 in the western Amazon region in Ecuador.
With knee-jerk reactions, this specimen defends itself against the bite attacks of an ocelot.
The predator keeps trying to grab him, but the sloth successfully defends itself.
A team led by the researcher María Camila Bastidas-Domínguez, who also published the video on YouTube, evaluated the rare video in a study.
Sloths – better known for their leisurely pace – live almost exclusively in the trees.
According to the researchers, the animals sometimes leave the sheltered treetops to supplement their diet with mineral licks and soil on the ground.
As a rule, such ground excursions take place at night, protected from darkness.
The video now impressively shows why – but also that sloths are not completely defenseless in the unfavorable conditions for them.