Bright Pink Slug Added to Australia’s List of Unique Wildlife (Video)
Australia had been famous around the world for its unique wildlife.
The country is home to the dingo or wild dog which is the largest carnivorous mammal. There are also the numbats, the Tasmania, the endangered quolls and the Bilby.
Of course, Australia is the only continent with 55 different native species of the marsupials most commonly known as the kangaroos and wallabies.
The country is also a home to the egg-laying mammals or the monotremes. The most commonly known of is the platypus.
A cute addition to this unique wildlife has just been recently discovered - an 8-inch long, bright pink colored slug. The creature is becoming famous for its seemingly cartoonish appearance. It seems as if it popped out from a comic book or an animated film.
The cute-looking slug can only be found at the Mount Kaputar in South Wales. According to reports, locals in the region had been talking about the bright pink slug in the past. But it was only now that taxonomists made the confirmation that the mystery slug is indeed a new addition to the unique wildlife that the country has.
Scientist had already named the pretty slug as Tribonioporus aff. Graeffei, but since that is something hard to say, the creature remained to be called as the bright pink slug. Scientists also said that it can only be found in mountainous region with alpine forests.
According to studies, the bright pink slug survived a particular era when Australia has richer rainforests. Thanks to numerous volcanic eruptions that had happened in the span of million years, the changed landscape coupled with the dry environment at Mount Kaputar protected the slugs from being extinct.
There are thousands of the bright pink slugs crawling in the mountain. It was such a charming sight according to those who had seen the cute creatures. Come nighttime, the slugs crawled up to the trees and eat mold and moss. The fallen eucalyptus leaves which are red in color, helped the slugs to camouflage hidden away from predators.
In an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corportaion, National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger Michael Murphy said that the slugs were "As bright pink as you can imagine, that's how pink they are. On a good morning, you can walk around and see hundreds of them."
Mr. Murphy said that the slugs were not the only unique creatures spotted in the region. Mount Kaputar is also home to other invertebrates and plants that were hidden for million years. It is only now that they were being discovered since the rainforests had ebbed and dried out.
Mr. Murphy said, "We've actually got three species of cannibal on Mount Kaputar, and they're voracious little fellas. They hunt around on the forest floor to pick up the slime trail of another snail, then hunt it down and gobble it up."
The scientists said that the bright pink slugs were the only species left from Godnwana and there is a possibility that they belong to the slugs still found in New Guinea and New Zealand.