Fact or Fiction: Sloths (featuring Tumble)

[MUSIC PLAYING] Lemonade. Hey, StoryPierce Podcast listeners. Lee here. Today, we have a very special crossover episode for you with the podcast "Tumble," which is a great science podcast for kids and families. We're calling this episode "Bacter Fiction Slots." And first, you'll hear a segment from "Tumble" about, well, Slots. And then, you'll hear one of my favorite stories from the StoryPierce Archives. That's also about Slots. And it's all coming up after a few words for the grown-ups. [MUSIC PLAYING] StoryPierce Podcast. It just filled me up with joy. My mom loves the jokes. Yo, yo, my check. It may be very proud about my spreading. Yeah, we're just getting, like, really deep into, like, I want to say philosophy. I definitely think I can be more creative now. I'm the champion! The StoryPierce. Welcome back to "Tumble." And welcome back to StoryPierce, specifically a special collaborative episode between "Tumble" and "StoryPierce." I'm Lindsay from "Tumble," where we explore stories of science discovery. And I'm Marshall from "Tumble," which is the same show that Lindsay just said. And I'm Lee from "StoryPierce," where we take stories written by kids and turn them into sketch comedy and songs. And today, we're exploring a little thing we like to call-- Fact? Or fiction! We will! And it's up to you, the listener, to decide which is which. I mean, based on what we have for the facts, I think it's going to be pretty obvious. I don't think anyone's going to have any problems here. Yeah, it's not hard to figure out if you're actually listening. Yeah, but we're going to do it anyway, because that's the concept of the show. All right, fine. You know what, Lindsay and Marshall? I do have to confess something before we begin. Oh, no. What is it? I-- This is really hard to say. I'm terrible at facts, you guys. Well, I have to say that at Tumble, we're not really into facts. We're interested in what's supported by scientific evidence and, like, consensus and that sort of thing. Yeah, yeah, that much is true. OK, well, riddle me this. Does this sound like something supported by scientific evidence? Him. Slots are magical beings who great wishes and have side jobs as auctioneers. Sounds legit to me. I don't know, Marshall. I do not think that scientists have observed that thing. I told you I was bad at facts! Why don't I share with you something that scientists actually have observed, and maybe that will have you get a little better at facts, maybe? Did you know, Lee, that some sloths wear backpacks, and they bounce when they fall out of trees? [LAUGHS] I didn't know if you were kidding when he said backpacks, but when he said bounce out of trees, I was like, he's a funny one. That was good. Good joke, guys. Lee, that's absolutely true. You absolutely almost had me, too. Nice one. No, seriously, Lee, that's true. OK, I know I'm easy to pull one over on, but this is starting to get a little bit mean. You're not going to trick me into thinking that sloths wear backpacks. They do. Or that they bounce out of trees. They also do that, yes. Stop messing with me! I can't handle it! All right, all right. You know what, why don't we just show you? Hi, I'm Lindsay, and I'm Marshall. Welcome to Tumble, the show where we explore stories of science discovery. Today, we're asking, why are sloths so slow? But what if they don't think they're slow? Shouldn't the question be, why are we so fast? Well, from our perspective, sloths move in slow motion, but they have a surprising skill that makes them difficult to study. We'll find out how a sloth scientist got crafty enough to discover why slowness is a sloth secret to survival. Today, we have a question from our listener, Alena. Why are sloths so slow? Who said I'm slow? That your sloth impression. I can run very fast for a sloth. Sloths are slow, and Alena had an idea of why they might be so sluggish. I think sloths are slow because of the eucalyptus leaves they eat, like the leaves they eat. To sloths eat eucalyptus, I thought sloths lived in South America. I think koalas are the slow-moving eucalyptus fans, but Alena's right that sloths eat leaves. And she thinks those leaves might give scientists a clue as to why sloths are slow. They could take some leaves and look into them with a microscope and other scientific things that could help them figure out if the eucalyptus leaves or any kind of leaves have anything to do with slowness. So maybe the all-leaf diet is what's slowing sloths down and if they switch to hamburgers, they'd be sprinting up there with a cheetah. Well, let's ask our listeners, why do you think sloths are so slow? And how do you think scientists would find out the answer? Take a minute to think about it. And we'll be back with a sloth scientist to discover the secret to sloth and slowness. I can't wait. Rebecca Cliff has been studying sloths since before they were cool. When I first started working with sloths 14 years ago, nobody knew what a sloth was. I'd say to people, I'm a sloth scientist and they were like, what is a sloth? People didn't know what a sloth is. It's crazy, but it's true. Somebody asked me if a sloth was a type of mosquito once. I always remember that. But now if I say I'm a sloth scientist, people are like, oh my God, you've got the best job in the world because everyone loves sloths. That's true, everyone is obsessed with sloths and how weird they are, because they're weird. They are weird, but Rebecca didn't know anything about sloths. The first time she met one. And I remember that my first thought was like they're like aliens, right? I just started laughing because they're so weird. You might think sloths are weird from pictures or what you've seen on the internet, but when you meet one, there's something really, really otherworldly about them. Wait, so here's the thing is I already think sloths are pretty weird, so it's hard to imagine them being even weirder than that. We're just not used to that level of slowness in person. And I think what it is is because they don't just move infrequently, they move slowly and every single part of their body move slowly. So like when they turn their head, it's very slow. When they blink, it's slow. It's almost like somebody's put them in slow motion. - Okay, well, so to ask Elena's question, why, why are they so slow? - Well, that's what Rebecca set out to discover when she ventured into the jungle to study sloths. - So in terms of understanding their slow movements, yeah, it was really a case of, okay, I need to go out into the jungle and I need to spend as much time as I possibly can hanging out with sloths and just watching them and learning from them and trying to understand what they're doing and why they're doing it. Which is a really difficult thing to do because you can't walk up to a sloth and say, "Excuse me, why are you doing this?" - I think mostly because it would just take them so long to explain. - Like Jean Goodall did with chimpanzees, Rebecca set herself up to take careful observations of sloths in their native habitat. She quickly discovered it wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. - I walk out into the jungle with my binoculars like I'm gonna research sloths and I'm gonna go and watch them. You can't watch them because you can't see them. - Sloths are so well camouflaged, they are nearly impossible to spot. And when she did spot them, they somehow managed to disappear in front of her very eyes. - I can be with a sloth one minute and I'll look away and five minutes later, the sloth has gone. I cannot see it and I will spend all day looking for that one sloth in that one tree and I still can't see it. I don't know where it's gone. - Where'd the sloth go? - You know, it didn't spread away. - No. They're just amazing hiders like number one at Heinen Go See. Except for the go-park. Yeah, hide and just sit there. And this is really what led me to come up with the theory that slots are slow, not because they're lazy and not just because it saves some energy, but also because it's a really great way to survive in the jungle. Wait, so being slow is a great way to survive in the jungle? Because I don't know, there's lots of creatures in the jungle that are pretty fast, and it seems like you'd have to be faster than them to get away. Well, being slow is an uncommon strategy, but it works for slots for good reason. You don't need energy and you don't need to run away if nobody knows where you are. Yeah, that's fair. If nobody knows where you are, you don't need to run. Exactly, but as cool as slots sneaky survival skills are, their slow stealth makes it really hard to understand their behavior, which may be why they were named a word for lazy rather than a word for clever. The thing that makes them so good at surviving in the jungle is also the thing that makes people misunderstand them so much, because they're invisible. They can't understand them because we can't see them. So, yeah, it's been a journey. Wait, so how do you actually study slots if they're just totally invisible? Are we sure they're not just made up? They are real. How do we know if we can't see them? If we know one thing, it's that slots are real. Fair enough. Well, maybe we should ask our listeners what they'll do in Rebecca's situation. How would you study an animal that's incredibly good at camouflaging itself? And when we come back from this quick break, we'll find out how this law scientist figured out a solution. Hey, grown-ups! Today's episode is sponsored by Yodo. As a parent, I'm always trying to balance what's fun, what's educational, and what's actually worth my kids' attention. Sometimes, you just need some time to make dinner and answer an email, finish your coffee, you know, and screens they can work. But I love screen-free alternatives to keep my kid engaged. And that's why I'm so glad that I discovered Yodo, a screen-free audio player for kids aged three to twelve that bring stories, music, learning, and imagination together in one simple device. Kids just pop in an audio card and can take the lead themselves, no cameras, no microphones, no ads, just their own imagination running the show. And with more than 1,300 audio cards, including stories in Spanish and French, there's something for every age and interest. Recently, my kid was using the Draw Along Yodo card, and I was actually shocked at how well it worked for a three-year-old even. I know, I really shouldn't be shocked about the power of audio, but here we are. The reason Yodo has become such a big part of our routine isn't just because it's screen-free, it's because my kid genuinely loves it. If you're looking for a gift that they'll actually use and enjoy head to YodoPlay.com, that's Y-O-T-O, and use my code Story Pirates to save 10% off your order. Add a little imagination and a little less screen time to your family's day with Yodo. Thank you Yodo for sponsoring this episode. Okay, so Rebecca came up with a theory about why sloths are slow. But their invisibility skills frustrated her attempts to study them. So what did she do? Did she just go home and be like, "I guess I'm going to go study another animal?" "I hear slow loruses are in these days." Rebecca was not going to give up on sloths. She was going to figure out a way to study them. This took many years, actually, and it started with me knowing that we needed to use some technology to help us understand sloths because just using my eyes wasn't working. Rebecca knew a scientist who had built a tiny device that could be attached to animals and track everything they were doing, whether you could see them or not. It's called a daily diary, and Rebecca wanted to try it out on sloths. And it's basically a little data logger that records everything that the animal does almost as if the animal is writing a diary. That's a good way to get around the fact that sloths can't write because they can't hold the pen. Exactly. The daily diary would never lose track of the sloths the way that Rebecca did, because it was actually attached to it. The tracker could record around the clock in a way that humans never could. That sounds perfect. But Rebecca had another problem. How could she get the daily diary to stay on the sloth? We tried taping it to the fur, we tried putting it on a collar around the neck. What kind of tape do you use to stick something to a sloth? Is there a sloth tape? Well, it's a device to say that the sloth tape didn't work, and neither did the collar. The sloths would scratch at it, or the device would move around too much. So I thought, well, let's try a little, like, harness a backpack. A sloth backpack? I feel like I've definitely seen backpacks in the shape of sloths. But what would a backpack for a sloth be like? It doesn't also look like a sloth. So no one had ever sewn a backpack for a sloth, and Rebecca had to make it herself. She started with a trip to the fabric store. Oh my gosh, I love scientists. I bought some elastic, and I bought a needle in a thread, and I started sewing a harness for a sloth, and figuring out how it can go around the shoulders and the chest, but not both of this sloth. I can just imagine her going into a fabric store and saying, listen, I need a backpack that won't fall off of the sloth. Can you help me with a design? It was an unusual situation, and Rebecca told me that she wasn't really prepared in school to become a sloth seamstress. Even today, my sewing is terrible. My mom would be ashamed. But that didn't stop Rebecca from trying out her idea. This is what is like being a scientist. Everybody thinks that being a scientist, there's like a proper way to do things. But actually being a scientist is all about muddling through and doing DIY projects. So basically she's saying all scientists are real do it yourselfers. Definitely the ones that work with animals. After some trial and error, Rebecca came up with a sloth backpack design that worked. And she custom sewed them for a number of sloths that they found and then released back into the wild. This was the best way. They weren't bothered by it at all. It was secure enough that it wouldn't catch on any branches or get tangled anywhere. And yeah, it just worked really well, and we're still using them today. That's so cool and kind of adorable. So what did she find out from the backpacks that she couldn't see before? Yeah, we found lots of interesting things. One of my favorites is that sloths actually fall out of the tree on average once a week for their entire lives. I'm sorry. I just fall. She's like, oops. They do. And here's how Rebecca found it out. We've discovered that with the backpacks because the backpacks have pressure sensors in. So what we see when we analyze the data is this huge change in pressure. At first, Rebecca and her team didn't know what they were looking at. Pressure measures how much force is on the sloth. The moment I really knew it was falling out the tree is because I saw one of the sloths wearing a backpack fall out the tree. So I noted down what time it happened. And then when I looked back at the data, I could see it. And I was like, oh, that's exactly what we've been seeing at all these other times as well. I got a kid with this. There's a sloth with a backpack falling out the tree. It's too much. It's just too much. Are you crying? Yes. It's too much. Marshall is literally wiping away his tears right now. Sloths and backpacks falling out of the tree. They're basically adapted to fall from trees because their favorite food is the young leaves at the tips of branches. And to get to those leaves, they have to navigate on some really delicate twigs. And those often break with the sloth's body weight. So they do fall out of trees very frequently. And they can fall up to 100 feet and survive. They actually bounce slightly when they hit the floor. They can fall 100 feet and survive. They bounce. They bounce. Yes. You will lose it at this because there's another reason why they might fall from trees. Oh, no. The aim of a sloth fight is actually to knock the other sloth out the tree. The sloth fights. round of this left boxing match, 45 minutes long. They hang on each other and they do a little bit of biting and a little bit of clawing at each other, but mostly they try and get each other's limbs off the branches, so they're trying to pull each other off and then the lose a false. Yeah. Oh man, so like falling must be the fastest that they ever move by like kind of a loss. I can only imagine how it would feel to a sloth to be like plummeting hundreds of feet out of the sky, like being on a roller coaster times a thousand. It is incredible. So to get back to Alina's question of why sloths are usually so slow, Rebecca has shown us that it's an uncommon but effective survival strategy. That's why sloths are built for slowness. So they digest everything really, really slowly and they don't get very much energy from that, so they can't run away if there's a predator, so they have to remain unseen in order to survive. So it's kind of like like a balancing act where sloths don't need to eat too much because they're just not using that much energy. Yeah, most animals choose the opposite strategy. They move quickly in order to eat enough food and get enough energy to survive, but sloths don't need to. They just sit there. Hiding. Solid strategy. It takes them a full month to digest one leaf. So Alina was on to something thinking it's about what sloths eat. Leaves might not make them slow, but they are part of the story of their super slow powers. The tummies are always full, so they only eat a little bit, so they don't need to move around looking for food and running away from predators, so they can actually stay quite still and quite quiet. Being slow is actually a genius move. I'll think about that next time I don't want to get off the couch to get more to read us. Well, the brilliant and also the appeal of being slow is actually a huge part of what motivated Rebecca to start studying sloths in the first place. I think there was a big part of me that really idolized the sloths for their way of life, and I wanted to better understand it so that people could also learn from it as well, and see why that lifestyle might actually be beneficial for us. That's incredible. Sloth, the lifestyle. The grammar. Stay hidden. It's aspirational. But to be real, slowness does have its disadvantages for sloths. Right now, their habitat is being affected by human activities, and sloths have trouble picking up the pace to adapt to changes, and it's hard to know how they're dealing with it. One of the many things nobody knows about sloths is how many they are or how vulnerable they are, because nobody can see them. You can't count an animal that you can't see. Rebecca's new project is training dogs to sniff out sloths cat or poop, which is a way to estimate how many sloths are living in the area. What's more being a scientist, a lot more time dealing with poop than you'd think. It worked, and that's what Rebecca's learned about doing science. You have to figure out what works, and go with it. To be a good scientist, you have to be a good problem solver. There's no rule book, and there's no instruction manual. If you're going to study something that's never been studied before, you're going to have to make it up. Yeah, I feel like figuring out how to design a sloth backpack is a prime example of that. Who knew that they could wear one, and who knew that it would look so charming? And it does some pretty good science, too. Nice side effect. The primary thing is sloths with backpacks. Secondary learning about sloths. Now that you learned how Rebecca created a sloth backpack to help her study sloths, think of your favorite animal, and what you'd have to design in order to study it. How would you design something that would stay on your favorite animal's body, and what kind of information would it collect? Draw a picture of your design on your favorite animal, or if you're feeling crafty, make a model out of materials that you might have lying around. You can sew or just use tape and glue like special sloth tape. And tell us what you created with love to hear about it. So there you go, Lee. It's real. It's real sloth science. Wow. Thank you so much for the sloth knowledge, tumble. You're welcome. And when we come back, Lee, maybe you and story pirates can share some fiction about sloths. Uh, sure. Yeah. Okay. Sure. Yeah. Let's do it. Yeah. Uh-huh. I mean, yeah, let's do it. Lee, are you okay? I'm fine. We'll be right back after a few words for the grown-ups. Hey, it's Julia Louis-Dreyfus from The Wiser than Meat Podcast, among other things. And I've got a little holiday wisdom for you. Hosting during the holidays means lots of cooking, and that means your trash is going to be full of smelly, rotting food, yuck. So here's the wisdom. Get a mill food recycler. I did. We've had ours for years, and it has totally transformed our kitchen. It's unbelievable how much cleaner everything is now. Plus, it's so easy to use. You toss in basically any food you don't eat. Peels, pits, meat, dairy bones. Last year, we put in a whole turkey carcass, really. While you sleep, mill automatically dries and grinds all your food waste down to about a fifth of its size. That means at night, you can fill it after a big, elaborate dinner. And by morning, they'll be room for breakfast. Nothing rots, nothing stinks, no fruit flies. And my favorite part, no more of those gross, drippy, mid-dinner garbage runs. If you want a cleaner, calmer kitchen this holiday season, go to mill.com/weiser for an exclusive offer. That's mill.com/weiser. Happy hosting. Welcome back to Tumble and Story Pirates present Fact or Fiction. Now, we've learned a lot about facts about slots from Tumble. And now it's time for some slot to fiction. Let's get to it. Okay, so here's the deal. Listeners, what you are about to hear is a story about slots that's written by a real kid. That's right, a real kid. And though I do personally believe that slots are magical beings, I'm not sure it's exactly a fact. But does that matter? No. Here's the author to introduce their story. Hi, my name's Rowan. I'm nine years old and I live in Illinois. This is my story. It's called Rowan in the three slots. Ah, good morning, world. What a beautiful day. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. And best of all, it's the weekend. Which means I can finally have some me time. I'm going to spend the next few days doing what I love most. Wandering. Wandering. Wandering. I just love to wander around. Although I do feel like there was something I was supposed to do today. Oh well, time to wander. Oh, good morning, mom. Wow, mom, what an epic slam dunk. You completely destroyed the hoop. And you got it all on film, right? Mama's finally going viral. That's what I was supposed to do. Help you film your morning Dunker team. Rowan, that kind of a dunk happens once in a lifetime. Sorry, mom. I'll totally film it next time. Oh, dear. How am I going to practice my sick dunks with no basketball hoop? Maybe I can just tie a small trash can to a baby Baronosaurus. Come to think of it, I don't have a small trash can. Or a baby Baronosaurus. Really, I just need an unbreakable hoop. Well, I'd love to stay and help clean up, but the day's getting on and I got a wander. Okay, have fun, sweetie, and don't wander too far. Wandering. Wandering. Hello, Rowan. Oh, hi, mailman, Mike. Are you on one of your trademark wanders? Sure am. How's the mail today? Bulky. This time of year, it's like a never-ending stream of packages. It's impossible to carry everything at once. I have to make multiple trips. Say, did you bring that dolly you said I could borrow? Ah, right. That was the other thing I was supposed to do. I guess I started wandering and just forgot. Sorry. Oh, no problem. You know, what I need is some sort of magic mailbag that can fit an infinite amount of packages, but that'll never happen. Oh, well, enjoy your wander, Rowan. Bye. Time to wander. Hey, Rowan, wait up. Oh, hey, Renee. Rowan, where you going? The big science fan was in two days, and you promised you would help me with my homemade Tesla coil. Ah, right. That's the other other thing I was supposed to do today. I really need your help with the size. - Sorry, but a wanderer's got a wander. - I guess so. - Oh well, have fun wandering, see you later. ♪ Wondering, wandering ♪ ♪ I just love to wander around. ♪ - Gee, I was so busy singing, I didn't notice that I wandered right into this mysterious forest. - Oh, oh, oh, oh, hello, Mr. Owl. - Oh, hello, colony of bats. Oh, hello, three magical sloths and three magical trees. - Hello. - Wait, three magical sloths and three magical trees. - That's right. - Welcome to our magical clearing. - You must be rolling. - How did you know my name? - The same way you knew that a group of bats is called a colony. - Magic. - Actually, I knew that because I did a project on bats for school last year. - Oh, hey, good for you. - Thanks. - Anyway, we're here to grant you three wishes. - Three wishes? Cool. So do I just say what I want or do I rub your magical tummies or something? - Do you should never rub a sloths belly? - Why? - Because we are extremely. - Take a look. - Take a look. - Take a look. - Take a look. - Tickle-prone. - Tickle-prone. - Extremely. - Could one of my wishes be for you all to talk faster? - Oh, sorry, Rowan. We didn't realize you were in a hurry. - Most people make sloths to talk slow, but actually we love talking fast. - In fact, when we're not granting wishes, we all have part-time jobs as auctioneers. (all cheering) - My little friends are very loud. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Okay, I just got a lot more wandering to do before this sun goes down. You know what I mean? - Then let's get this show on the road. - So I can wish for anything? - Whatever you need, Rowan. Just say it and we'll make it so. - I mean, I don't really need anything, but there's plenty that I want. So for my first wish, I want. - I need an unbreakable hoop, breakable hoop. - I want. - I need a magic mailbag, mailbag. - I want. - I need to help with science fair. Science fair, science fair. - Well, Rowan, what is it that you want? - I want to say something. I realized that I let a few people down today who were counting on me. I just got so distracted by my favorite thing, wandering that I forgot all about the promises I made. I was so wrapped up in me time. I forgot about the importance of way time. - Oh, we certainly like the sound of that. - Okay, here's what I want. An indestructible basketball hoop with a built-in camera for my mom. - Ooh. - A magical mailbag that can fit unlimited packages in it for mail, man, my. - Ah. - And the world's smartest scientist to help my friend Renee with her science project. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Rowan, your wishes are granted. - Hey, my mom's calling. Hello? - Rowan, come home quick. - There's an emergency. - Oh no, I'm on my way. Sorry, Sloss, I gotta run. - Bye. - Bye. - You wandering, wandering. - Hey Rowan, mailman Mike. - Look, someone just sent me a magic mailbag that can fit unlimited packages. It's a miracle. - Good things happen to good people, mailman Mike. Gotta run, bye. - Bye. - Wandering, wandering. - Hey Rowan, hey Renee. - Don't sweat helping me with the science fair project. Turns out the world's smartest scientist is a long lost cousin and just happened to be in town to visit. - And I'm happy to help. - Amazing. I'd love to stay in chat, Renee, but I gotta run. Bye. - Bye. - Bye. - Rowan, thank goodness you're here. I ran as fast as I could, Mom. What's the emergency? Rowan, it's an emergency of awesomeness. Check it out. It's a brand new, indestructible basketball hoop in the driveway. Mom, slip, dunk. Sick dunk, Mom. Thanks. Say, I wonder how this got here. I guess there's someone out there looking out for you. - It's us. - Sloths? What are you doing here? - To be honest, we just can't get that wandering song out of our heads. It's so catchy. - We wish we could sing it with you. - Magical tree's loss. Your wish is granted. (upbeat music) - Wandering, wandering. ♪ We all love to wander, wandering, wandering ♪ ♪ We all love to wander, wander, wander, wander ♪ ♪ To wander, wander, wander ♪ ♪ All round the end ♪ - Wow, thanks, Lee. That was incredible. I've never heard a sloth sing or auctioneer quite like that before. - Yeah, maybe a scientist should try to recognize the signs of sloth auction. Like he might not look like the auctions that we as humans are used to seeing, but that doesn't mean they're not selling things. - Absolutely. I think maybe just like in science fiction, sloth fiction can inspire sloth fact. - Or sloth fact can inspire sloth fiction. - Now you're talking! Ha ha! (upbeat music) That's it for today's bonus crossover episode with tumble. Make sure to check out tumble science podcasts for kids wherever you get your podcasts. And we'll be back next week with more stories for you. Until then, stay creative and stay kind. - Bye!