The sloth sleeps tonight

First electrophysical recording made of a wild animal sleeping.

Scientists in Panama have been the first to record the electrophysiology of sleep in wild animals – three toed sloths. To do this, the animals carried miniature electroencephalogram recorders to collect their neurophysiological data in conjunction with the monitoring of their brain activity during sleep.

An international team of researchers working on the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Barro Colorado Island in Panama placed the two brain activity sensors as caps on the sloths’ heads.

Radio telemetry

In addition, three of the adult three-toed sloths also were fitted with radio-telemetry collars and accelerometers so that their exact locations and movements could be monitored over the next three to five days. However, two sloths were monitored via the radio-telemetry collar only over seven months.

The placement of sensors on sloths living in the treetops demonstrates the viability in understanding a complex behaviour, such as sleep, in an intricate tropical forest environment. It also will lead to more refined, comparative sleep research.

“The beauty of the automated telemetry system is that it makes a new suite of animal behaviour studies possible,” said Martin Wikelski, director of the Max Plank Institute for Ornithology, researcher at Princeton University and research associate at the Smithsonian. “We certainly encourage researchers who would like to monitor animals in the wild to join our ongoing studies or initiate work using the system.”

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