The author takes a photo of the only banana slug she's seen since moving to Santa Cruz.
I’ve still only seen one banana slug in real life, and it was very exciting. It was in November at Big Basin State Park.
I am highly amused by the fact that the UC Santa Cruz mascot is the banana slug and find it far funnier than any of the mascots at my alma maters: Willie the Wildcat, a hawk and a Spartan.
There was also a time in my childhood when I wanted to be an entomologist. Given all of these facts, I couldn’t help but laugh when I spotted a piece on Boing Boing today that’s all about the banana slug — its reproductive process, to be exact. Apparently they are hermaphroditic!
The piece that Boing Boing references, written by Cassandra Willyard, can be found in full on The Last Word on Nothing.
Please note: these pieces both discuss sexual anatomy of the gastropod variety.
More on the banana slug can be found in the research of UC Santa Cruz PhD candidate Brooke Miller.
