Range: Cosmopolitan Habitat: Varies by species Size: Less than 1 inch - 1 foot (2.54-30.5cm) long Diet: Plants, mushrooms, and animal matter Threats: Beetles, snakes, birds, and amphibians Life span: One year or more

Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about slugs. There’s lots to learn about all the animals of the world, keep up with new releases by subscribing! We’ve talked about land snails and some marine snails; we’ve also talked nudibranchs who are otherwise known as sea slugs. Any longtime viewers of this show know I’m slightly obsessed with gastropods, and now it’s finally time to give land slugs some love!

Technically slugs and snails are the same. Most people call any of these squishy bois with a visible shell a snail and any without a visible shell a slug, but taxonomically speaking there are some slugs more closely related to certain snails than they are other slugs, so their classification goes more than shell deep. Plus! Sometimes there are slugs who look like a cross between a slug and a snail. These are usually referred to as semi-slugs. They do have shells, but they’re no longer able to curl up inside them the way a snail would. This, of course, just means there are more adorable gastropods to love!

To get around, slugs travel on slime trails. These smile trails are produced via released mucus, and the slugs move around using a muscular “foot”. To sense their surroundings, slugs use the tentacles found on their heads. Most slugs have two pairs of tentacles. The top pair is typically used to sense light while the bottom pair is used for smelling. To breathe, slugs use a hole in their mantle - the mantle being the saddle-looking section of their backs.

The largest slugs can reach a foot (30.5 centimeters) in length while the smallest may be less than an inch (2.54 centimeters) in length. In speaking about the exact number of species of slugs currently living today, Google is probably our most reliable resource.

Slugs can be found almost worldwide with some living in temperate regions, others in tropical areas; there are also some found in snowy mountains or in dry deserts. This fact is noteworthy because slugs are pretty dependent on water. Part of the reason these guys are most commonly seen right after a rain shower is that they love moisture. Slugs are always at risk for drying out and that’s why they spend most of their time hiding in damp places like under rocks and rotting logs and typically only come out at night.

On their nightly prowls, slugs may take on any amount of food items. These guys are omnivores as well as decomposers. Plants and mushrooms as well as any assortment of animal matter may be eaten, it all just depends on the species. They eat by scraping away at food surfaces using a radula - it looks terrifying this close up, but they actually kind of tickle when they are chomping at the bacteria living on your skin. It’s like a tiny cat tongue licking you!

Slugs themselves are eaten by… well pretty much anything that can find them. Birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, not to mention all kinds of invertebrates. Sometimes the mucus that slugs produce can make them taste unappetizing, though. Plus, they’re really good at squishing their bodies into a ball making them almost impossible to pick up. So the lack of a shell isn’t a complete loss.

For breeding, slugs do mate with another individual of their species, though technically speaking they’re typically both male and female. This means that they can fertilize another slug’s eggs while their own eggs get fertilized in the same copulation. Slugs lay their eggs in moist soil and the eggs may take a few weeks to a few months to hatch. Slugs may live to be at least a year old in the wild!

For more facts on slugs, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.