Banana Slug Survivalist Games - Sightings in the Forest of Big Basin State Park

Text by J. Zimmerman, Ph.D.
All photos (c) 2002 Scott Peden, Photographer and Docent at Big Basin State Park.

Forest and Tree Home, Glossary pages: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

the hottest new books on trees and forests.

Now it can be revealed - how banana slugs conquer the wild!

Slugs often climb trees in search of prey:

They often eat flowers, sometimes by biting through the flower's stem so that the tasty blossom crashes to the forest floor, and sometimes by using geometry, engineering, and muscle power to overpower a flower, as here where Slug Cleopatra conquers a fetid adders tongue:

Hard to see and believe, but Scott captured this shot of a carnivorous Slug Hannibal grazing on the feathery remains of a bird. The mystery is how such a small slug brought down such a large bird ...

Books on Slugs

Field Guide to the Slug Explore the Secret World of Slugs and Their Kin - In Forest, Fields, and Gardens from Southeast Alaska to California, by Western Society of Malacologists, David G. Gordon.

Banana Slug: A Close Look at a Giant Forest Slug of Western North America by Alice Bryant Harper, Daniel Harper (Photographer).

See also these pages

• The littlest and the largest slugs. (Takes a moment to download.)
• How the large slugs create the little slugs. (Marvelous photos - well worth the download time!),
• Some of our record-setters: Hike reports for May and November.
• Articles - Our Index

Forest and Tree Home, Glossary pages: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

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Check our disclaimer. Text Copyright © 2002-2013 by J. Zimmerman. Photos Copyright © 2002-2012 by Scott Peden. The moral and intellectual property rights to the photos are asserted by Scott Peden. None of the photos referenced on this page may be reproduced without permission of Scott Peden.