Banana Slug

The banana slug is a large, brightly colored land slug native to the moist, temperate rainforests of the Pacific coast of North America, from California to Alaska, named for its typically yellow coloring and elongated shape that resemble a banana, though individuals can also appear green, brown or spotted with dark markings. It can grow to over twenty centimetres in length, making it one of the largest land slug species in the world, and it moves slowly across the forest floor on a single muscular foot, secreting a thick layer of mucus that helps it glide over rough surfaces, retain moisture and deter some predators. Banana slugs are important decomposers in their forest ecosystem, feeding on leaf litter, fungi, animal droppings and dead plant material, breaking it down and helping recycle nutrients back into the soil. Like many land slugs, they are hermaphrodites, possessing both male and female reproductive organs, and they have become an informal mascot of the redwood forests they inhabit, adopted as the official mascot of the University of California, Santa Cruz.