**Nature Nugget**
If you go out for a hike in the local redwood forests on a moist day, it would be hard to miss the banana slugs. They are often bright yellow (hence the banana nomenclature) although sometimes they are greenish, brown, tan, or even white. These slugs are native to coniferous forests along the Pacific coast, ranging from Southeastern Alaska down to the Channel Islands (with one location identified in San Diego County).
The banana slug is one of the slowest creatures on Earth, moving at a maximum speed of six and a half inches per minute. Like all slugs, they use two pairs of tentacles to sense their environment. The larger, upper pair protruding from the top of their heads is used to detect light and movement. The lower tentacles are used to feel and smell. The tentacles can retract and extend themselves to avoid damage, and regrow if injured.
Like all gastropods, banana slugs are hermaphrodites, which means they possess both female and male sex organs simultaneously. Each animal is both female and male at the same time, and all slugs are able to lay eggs. They’re able to mate with themselves, though they commonly court and mate with other individuals.
Banana slugs dispense dry granules of mucus, which then absorb several hundred times their volume in water to create slime. This slime helps them to move, stay moist, and to ward off predators. The slimy covering also contains chemicals that act as an anesthetic, numbing the throat and tongue of an animal that tries to eat it. Due to a dependence on this slime and a susceptibility to dehydration, banana slugs are more active during cool, moist days and during the night.
Banana slugs are an important part of their ecosystem. As decomposers , they eat detritus (dead organic matter), including moss, mushroom spores, fallen leaves, plants, and animal feces. They then recycle their food into nutrient-dense waste, which fertilizes and enriches the soil.