It was a cool, misty morning on the side of Mount Kaputar, and an event not witnessed in a while was startling early risers. Giant (20-centimeter or 8-inch) fluorescent pink slugs were popping up everywhere — a welcome sight for scientists who thought they'd gone extinct.
The only place in the world where you can find a kaputar slug is on an extinct Australian volcano in New South Wales' Mount Kaputar National Park. But in 2019, bushfires took out an estimated 90% of the native population.
In 2020, according to The Guardian, 60 slugs were spotted, prompting the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to launch the Slug Sleuth app, which allows park visitors to report any sightings. Thus far, people have reported 850 sightings. It's always great news when you find animals where you weren't expecting them.
Park ranger Michael Murphy talked to Australian Geographic about seeing hundreds heading back down the trees in the mornings after they forage for moss and lichen. But why are they pink?
"There's one idea that the pink colour camouflages them against the colour of fallen snow gum leaves on the forest floor," said Murphy. "But then again they spend a lot of their time way up in the canopy nowhere near the floor … so it might just be that if you're a giant slug way up on an isolated mountain top, you can be whatever colour you like."
One observer at the Paperbark Writer thinks the pink color is to camouflage them amid the fallen pinky-red eucalypt leaves. The slugs play a key role in maintaining a balanced ecosystem, with their eating habits contributing to the decomposition and recycling of nutrients back into the soil.
Adam Fawcett, NPWS threatened species project officer, was ecstatic to learn of their comeback following the fires. "That fire was pretty bad. We ended up with a large area of the summit burnt. Some areas were saved; some had had hazard reduction burns," he said, according to The Guardian.
It's still not 100% clear how the slugs survived, but one theory posits that they slipped far enough underground that the heat couldn't burn them. Plus, scientists think that a heavy rainy season helped. "We saw a mass breeding event, and because of La Niña, the breeding continued," Fawcett said.
Fawcett added: "In two sites, we've been getting about 200-odd slugs every time. I get really excited, I go crazy taking pictures. … I love when you see them doing something different. … You just don't know where to look. It's pretty impressive."
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A sign that nature is healing is an impressive and positive sign for us all.
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