Two years ago, a wildlife photographer named Nick Volpe was walking around in the woods of Wellington, New Zealand, when he spotted something unusual. Inching across the forest floor was an animal who looked exactly like a pickle.
As a wildlife photographer, Volpe recognized the animal as a member of the subspecies of leaf vein slugs colloquially known as New Zealand pickle slugs. But because pickle slugs are typically nocturnal, he’d never actually seen one in the flesh before.
“To say I was excited to meet this creature … was an understatement,” Volpe wrote on X.
When Volpe picked up the slug, it became clear just how pickle-like the creature really was. The animal’s color was the exact hue of a well-brined cucumber, and their back was covered in spikes that resembled the bumps pickles have on their skin.
“He’s just essentially a moving pickle,” Volpe said on Instagram.
Pickle slugs are air-breathing gastropods who are only found in New Zealand. Because of their elusive nature, not much is known about them. They likely feed on algae and fungi during their nightly excursions.
Pickle slugs’ unique appearance actually serves a biological purpose. Their green coloring helps them blend in with their environment, while the bumps on their backs aid in their disguise.
“Those pickle-like protrusions on its back are actually papillae, a feature of several slugs that in some species can even inflate and enlarge to alter their appearance,” IFL science wrote on their website.
To the human eye, though, these slugs look like they belong next to your sandwich. Their eggs even look like the little pearl onions found in many pickle jars.
“Not sure if I’ve ever seen a more fitting name for a creature before,” one commenter wrote below Volpe’s Instagram post.
While Volpe hasn’t gotten to see a pickle slug since that day two years ago, he’ll always treasure the time he came face to face with one of nature’s most mouth-watering invertebrates.
“I am in love with this thing,” Volpe said.
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