Every single animal in the world has its own characteristics. Some are really fast, while some others are really slow. Let’s just name the fastest animal, cheetah and the slowest animal which is tortoise or turtle. You might have ever been familiar to hear “as slow as a turtle”. However, turtle is not the only animal that moves really slowly.
Let’s see the 6 slowest
animals in the world you really want to push them to move faster.
Sloth might be the most famous animal to be the
slowest in the world. Sloths barely move during their days. Instead, they spend
most of the time of their days in the treetops. How enjoyable it is!
They become lethargy because of their low metabolic rate. The slow rate of their metabolisms require them to eat only a few leaves and twigs as their nutrition.
Surprisingly, they move at a breakneck pace of 6 to 8 feet per minute. According to some reports on National Geographic, some algae even grows on their coat as they move so slowly. Sloth is also great at swimming, no wonder it is classified as land animals that are great swimmers.
Besides their slow metabolic rate, their anatomical
structure also enables them not to move a lot. They have very long arms that
enable them to grab anything without much moving and save energy at the same
time.
Another slowest animal in the world is garden snail. The garden snail is equipped with flat and muscular organ that makes it difficult to move quickly.
To be able to move, the garden snail releases a stream of mucus in order to reduce the friction between the organ and the surface of the path. This is the reason why you always find a trail of slime in a garden snail’s wake.
How slow can a garden snail move? The fastest speed a garden snail can reach is around 1/2 inch (1.3 centimeters) per second, however, it can move more slowly as 1/10 of an inch per second.
Patrick in Spongebob Squarepants is also considered as one of the slowest animals in the world. Starfish or sea stars have hard skin on top with some little wiggly tube feet at the bottom.
Those tiny feet are beneficial for grasping surfaces and moving around. However, starfish does not move fast, instead it moves slowly.
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an adult sea star or starfish can move at the whirlwind pace of one yard per minute and it is by using all its 15,000 helpful tube feet.
The giant Galapagos tortoise is the most famous species of giant tortoises that live on various lands. It is also the largest living tortoise ever as it can live for around 150 years or even more.
Charles Darwin is the person who studied the tortoises when he stayed on the Galapagos island in 1835. He thought that these tortoises could move fast as he found that the large one was able to go four miles in the day and needed short time to rest.
However, another person named Stephen Blake, the coordinator of the Galapagos Tortoise Movement Ecology Program, told BBC that the turtles are able to move 2 kilometers in one hour.
Sadly saying, giant tortoise is on the list of endangered animal species in Galapagos islands.
Another member from the sea that becomes the slowest animal in the world is sea anemone. For your information, there are more than 1,000 species of sea anemone around the world.
Sea anemone is a colorful and interesting underwater creatures, but it moves really slow. That’s why it is on the list of most colorful animals. Sea anemone is able to move a centimeter per hour. This movement is captured with time-lapse photography.
Sea anemone is using its pedal disc – its lone foot and mucus secretions to attach itself to any surfaces, such as shells, rocks, coral reefs and plants.
If you compare manatee with other slowest animals, it is relatively speedy. However, when you consider its heft and disdain for movement, manatee usually moves really slow.
Being known as the sea cow, manatee can reach up to 13 feet long and weigh 3,500 pounds. Manatee is also one of the land animals that are great swimmers.
Unfortunately, manatee’s population is in danger as they have humans as their biggest threat. However, because of the hard work and effort of conserving manatees, the West Indian manatee in Florida is no longer on the list of endangered species in 2017.