Entry the fiftieth: Amphibious Outrage
Today at work, I told someone that I liked newts. I pointed out that some of them are orange, and what's not to like about that? And then I felt the need to illustrate. After a little poking around, I found this image, care of www.northmoortrust.co.uk.
This newt is seriously irate. His stance and expression both say "What the hell, man?! I'm a newt! Back off!"
I'm not messing with that newt. He means business.
Labels: great crested newt, newt, orange
posted by Elinoire @ 12:44 PM
6 Comments:
Orange you glad I didn't say Banana slug?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nao1/348342385/
Don't click that if you don't want to see a banana slug.
That came up while flickr surfing just last night.
I went to UCSC and the banana slug was our mascot. There also a lot of newts in the area. I once tried to help one cross a busy road and got bit for my efforts. No teeth but quite a lot of pressure!
I think he's saying, "Hey! Didn't you see this aposematic coloration? It's right here. You're looking at it. It's not easy to miss, that's why it's there, and it means I'M SCARY! If you mess with me, I will ooze on you or taste bad or something, so just put down that ruler and back away slowly, pal, before I unleash my powers."
--Sarah
Ack. I thought Earin was saying a banana slug bit her. I was going to have to leave the planet, if banana slugs could bite.
The banana slugs don't bite but if you hold one for a while (oh, stop squirming, it's only SLIME!) your hand starts to burn. I don't know why. It must be a chemical composition that starts to eat into your epidermis. When I first moved into the Santa Cruz mountains I kept seeing what I thought were eggs all over the road during my runs. I thought it was funny there was no sign of eggshells. You know where this is going.... Yup, people running over banana slugs. All together now...eeewwwwwwww!!!! In the Pacific northwest the banana slugs (maybe they are called something else at this point) are black or dark green.
Ack, that is a whole lot of slime. More, really, than I am prepared to deal with. I love the possums in our neighborhood who've cleaned out the snail population... but why do they leave the slugs?!
On a good slug note (if there is such a thing) I saw an *extremely* cute nudibranch (sea slug) in a tidepool last month. It was very dark brown or black and had a spiffy flourescent orange stripe going down each side. Pretty stylin' for a slug.
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