Sleep Not Science

A sloth named Mats in Jena, Germany, lived up to every stereotype of his species this year by being too lazy to take part in a scientific experiment.

Scientists had been trying for three years to try to get Mats to climb up and down a pole as part of an experiment in animal movement at the University of Jena’s Institute of Systematic Zoology and Evolutionary Biology.

The scientists had tried cucumber and homemade spaghetti to tempt the sloth, but he preferred to remain asleep on the floor of his cage. The scientists finally conceded defeat in January and sent Mats to a zoo in the city of Duisburg.

Sloths normally sleep about 129 hours per week and spend another 10 hours awake but motionless, making it unlikely Mats’ response was a Ghandian attempt at non-violent protest. But who knows? It may serve as inspiration for other animals in their dealings with science.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Under-reported. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.