You’d think it wouldn’t be very adaptive for a slug to be fluorescent bright pink, but in the tiny, unique ecosystem on top of Australia’s Mount Kaputar, it seems to work. Nice to know the ’80s are still alive and kicking on at least one Australian mountaintop.
It’s not that Mount Kaputar has no birds that might spot and eat the conspicuous critters — most of the birds there are called “honeyeaters,” and we’re guessing they’re not called “slugeaters” for a reason, but there are also several kinds of parrot and frankly I wouldn’t put anything past those guys. Instead, the weird coloration supposedly comes from the fact that Australia’s flora is sometimes as peculiar as its fauna — fallen eucalyptus leaves are red and hide the slug from predators. In theory. In practice I think hot pink and red kind of clash.
