Sloth vs Ocelot: Rare Footage of Predator Attack in the Amazon Jungle

KOMPAS.com – Sloths are known to be very slow moving animals so it would be easy to assume they were easy prey for predators while on the ground.

But a camera trap in the Amazon jungle managed to capture an unexpected moment.

Also read: 5 Slowest Animals in the World Besides Slow Lorises

The footage shows a sloth fighting and running away from an ocelot trying to catch it.

Dramatic footage filmed by the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the Ecuadorian Amazon shows the two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus) being attacked while visiting a swampy area known as a saladero or mineral lick.

In the footage, the sloth can be seen fending off an ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) attack with a few quick jabs so it can escape relatively quickly along a log.

Rare record

Quoting Science Alert, Friday (11/8/2023) the footage taken is quite rare.

Why, researchers from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, University of Texas, Austin in the US, and Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador explain in their paper.

First, predator attacks are not often caught on camera.

Second, sloths will usually visit Saladero at night, when it is safer.

Third, the sloth was not previously considered a target for the ocelot and it is not clear how the animal plans to prey on the sloth.

Also read: Are Sloths A Dangerous Animal?

“Two-toed sloths and ocelots are difficult animals to study,” said anthropologist Anthony Di Fiore, of the University of Texas at Austin.

“They are quiet, elusive and difficult to find and observe in the wild,” he said.

Who won?

Researchers cannot say for sure whether the sloth managed to escape completely unharmed, due to the camera trap’s limited field of view.

However, when investigators returned to the scene two days after the video was recorded, they found no evidence of a dead sloth.

Recorded visits by sloths to saladero are very few, only one in almost 4000 nights.

Also read: Getting to Know What a Sloth Is, a Very Slow-Moving Animal

The footage also shows how dangerous it is for animals to visit what is a popular feeding ground for many species.

Nevertheless, the recordings are useful in telling us more about the two animals.

Like for example the habits of sloths and animals preyed upon by ocelots.

Ocelots usually eat smaller creatures, such as snakes, turtles and frogs, but have been known to attack larger prey as well.

The findings are also a reminder that animals that tend to be slow-moving and have slow metabolisms can still be a match for more agile creatures in the wild.

This research has been published in Food Webs.

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2023-08-13 01:00:00
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