In 2019, devastation struck New South Wales (NSW) when about 5.5 million hectares, or seven percent of its total area, was burnt during what became known as the Black Summer fire season. The total area affected was four times greater than the previous worst forest fires.
Over just a few months, 26 lives were lost, 2,448 homes were destroyed and the impact on communities, farmers, local businesses, wildlife, and bushland was unprecedented.
Among the worst affected was a giant, fluorescent pink slug, Triboniophorus sp. nov. “Kaputar” or “Mount Kaputar pink slug” to its friends. It was estimated that almost 90 percent of one of Australia’s most unique and unusual creatures had been wiped out.
The slugs only exist within an area of about 100 square kilometres (40 square miles) on an extinct volcano in Mount Kaputar National Park, so that level of loss could easily be an extinction event.
It’s believed that a volcanic eruption 17 million years ago created a high-altitude area where these slugs and other invertebrates and plants have lived in isolation for millions of years.
From 60 to 850 in Four Years
When just 60 survivors were counted in 2020, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service optimistically introduced the Slug Sleuth app so park visitors could report sightings. The app allows users to upload pictures and information about how many slugs they saw, where, and when.
They’re not hard to spot, especially after rainfall and on cool, damp mornings. They can grow up to 20 centimetres long—longer than the average human hand—and six centimetres wide. And then, of course, there’s their bright fluorescent colour.
It’s not known how they survived, but the prevailing theory is that they escaped deep into rock crevasses, or far enough underground to be protected from the heat.
The creature is still classed by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage as an “endangered ecological community.”
Also at risk in the area are 11 native land snails, but they’re not nearly as photogenic. And two of them are cannibalistic. These predators follow the trail of other snails and slugs and are known to enter the shell of their prey, leaving their victim no means of escape.
