Two-toed Sloth in His Coat

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 49, 20 November 1937, Page 18

Two-toed Sloth in His Coat

PTTTT ; A BELBHIA. — Back from the highest peak in Panama, with a baby two-toed sloth in his coat, Dr, Bobert K^Enders of Swarthmore ;College,;.arriv- ' ed jecently with several thousands natural history specimens for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, The expedition, sponsored jointly by the Academy, Swarthmore College and' the American Philosophical Society, centered its studies on the extinct volcano Volcan de Chiriqui — an 11,500 foot park. Isolated from surrounding mountain ranges during mountain-making events that occurred hundreds of thousands of years ago, this peak, Dr. Enders pointed out, is ideally situated for the study and collection of animal and plant-lif e since the forms now on it. have. not been in general contact with the natural conditions of the surrounding country. David Bishop of the TTniversity of Pennysylvania, Dr. C. Brooke Worth, Samuel Cresson and Oliver Pearson of Swarthmore College, ' accompanied Dr. • Enders on the expedition and aided in collecting insects, animals and plants' for the Academy on this strangely isolated Panama mountain. A field mouse which has taken to the treetops, was one of the . interesting finds. Its change of home may be explained, according to Dr. Enders, by the gradual change that the sides of tho volcano have undergone since its period of activity. When active, its sides were bare or vegetation, but in time, grass, the normal habital of the field or harvest mouse, appeared — only to give way to tke scrubby jungle found to-day. As tke jungle appeared tke mouse adapted himself to tke cliauge — leaviug his grassy nest and taking to tke trecs. A fishing mouse wkieli hunts for aquatic prey by tlio side of streams, was anotker species discovered on tko kigk slopes o£ the peak.