Hold still. This creature was recorded going 2,569 days without moving.
Salamanders play the long game, with many species living surprisingly long lives. But among these enduring amphibians, there is one outlier – the olm, also known as the proteus.
It has been well documented that these small white cave-dwelling salamanders can live well into their hundreds, but scientists have now gained new insight into the creatures’ glacial pace of life.
In a study which makes sloths look recklessly hyperactive, divers documenting the movements of olms in Herzegovinian caves found that over a decade, individuals tended to move less than 10 metres in total.
However, one extraordinarily inert individual was found not to have bothered moving once in over seven years.
Olms
have no predators, are highly resistant to starvation – able to go without food for several years – are blind and live in complete darkness underground and underwater.
They are apparently only compelled to move in order to mate, which they do on average around once every 12.5 years.
In the caves in which they dwell food is typically scarce, but when they are able, olms feed on small crustaceans such as small shrimps, snails and occasionally insects.
