Best of Natural History Radio18 Okt 2019

Natural Histories : Sloth

The dreamy smile of the sloth has made it wildly popular, but once its slowness was condemned and saw it named after one of the seven deadly sins. Brett Westwood and Joanna Pinnock talk to those who really know, understand and live with sloths and ask if we're still projecting our own feelings onto them. Our changing attitudes to sloths tell us more about ourselves than about this harmless animal. Dr Rebecca Cliffe, founder of the Sloth Conservation Foundation and a leading researcher, is in the rainforest in Costa Rica with them right now. She describes how local people feel about them, while she sits under a tree with a sloth at the top. Joanna Pinnock tries for her own encounter with Marilyn the sloth and her baby Elio at ZSL London Zoo, and experiences the magic of sloths at first hand. William Hartston, author of Sloths: A Celebration of the World’s Most Misunderstood Mammal. explains the vexed history of sloth first as a sin then its next incarnation as a harmless South American treetop dweller named after that sin, and the repercussions for the animal down the centuries. He also shares his opinion on the best sloth in film. And it's not Sid from Ice Age. And the poet Debbie Lim reads her poem Gift of the Sloth, describing other ways in which they deserve our admiration, but again not for the reasons that the current popular image of sloths would seem to suggest.

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Episoder(369)

Living World : My Living World : Woodcock

Wildlife filmmaker Hannah Stitfall and wildlife film researcher Dom Davies enjoy a close encounter with one of our most mysterious birds, the woodcock, when they review another selection from the LIVI...

22 Mar 202021min

Living World : My Living World : Winter Flies

Where do flies go in winter and what happens to them? Wildlife filmmaker Hannah Stitfall and wildlife film researcher Billy Clark review another selection from the Living World archive to try and find...

10 Mar 202021min

Living World : My Living World : The Spined Loach

Keen naturalist Hannah Stitfall is joined by wildlife film researcher Dom Davies to review another programme from the LIVING WORLD archive. The subject today is Spined Loach - a fish you might never h...

29 Des 201921min

Living World : My Living World : Jackdaw Roost

In this episode from 2011 Joanna Pinnock wonders what makes jackdaws roost together, and to find out more heads to the Cambridgeshire countryside with corvid scientist Dr Alex Thornton. Arriving in th...

15 Des 201921min

Natural Histories : Aye-Aye

Think sprite or hobgoblin and you are nearly there when it comes to the Aye-Aye, surely one of the weirdest looking creatures on earth? With its large saucer-like eyes, massive ears, and long skeletal...

29 Nov 201927min

Natural Histories : Pigeon

The relationship between humans and pigeons is one of the oldest on the planet. They have been our co-workers; delivering messages, assisting during the war, providing a source of food, a sport and ob...

22 Nov 201927min

Natural Histories : Fern

For a plant that we generally associate with shady, damp places, a plant that has no flowers or scent, the Fern has drawn us into her fronds and driven an obsession that is quite like any other. Pteri...

15 Nov 201927min

Natural Histories : Poppy

Poppies are associated with many things but to most people they are a symbol of remembrance or associated with the opium trade. Natural Histories examines our fascination with the flower. Lia Leendert...

8 Nov 201927min