Critically Endangered
As with almost all of the other animals I've painted, I found out about this one on the IUCN website. Unfortunately, that is the only site I found that was in English. I was uncertain of the pages that were translated from Spanish though because the best one, the first sentence was an awful run-on one, but rather amusing. It said "His name is Larion Luisae, he is a slug and researchers from the Valencia museum of natural history" (and continued on for a good bit after that). I'm pretty sure Larion Luisae is not a slug, but if he is he's probably not a researcher (the translation did have researchers not researcher). Actually I am not sure anyone is Larion Luisae, because the slug's scientific name is Arion luisae. I'm fairly certain of the fact that only 2 of these have ever been seen, and they were found in Spain in 2013. I believe the scientific name is after the wife of one of the people who discovered the slug. They were found in an area that is protected, so that is good. None have been seen after the initial 2 even though there have been searches for them. If the translation was correct, they are small, barely over an inch long.
Oregon is slug heaven. Actually other countries come to Oregon to test their slug bait to see if it will work. We have pretty huge slugs too, one of the largest species of slugs that there are in fact. I've seen ones about 6 inches long easily, and I know that they can get to be 10 inches or so. Slugs are smarter than you might think. If they survive something that doesn't make them feel good, they won't try eating it again. Their slime is so thick they can slime on the edge of a razor blade and not get cut. I learned that when I was much younger. I consider myself a collector of useless facts, and have for as long as I can remember. I just love learning little generally useless facts that never will come up in conversation and I will never need. I'm not a huge slug fan. I prefer snails, their shell makes them cuter I think, but some slugs are still fun to watch, especially when they are eating.
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