Download Banana Slug Puppet

Banana Slug Puppet
FF-11C
SOURCE:
OBJECTIVES:
To introduce the banana slug and its role as a decomposer;
To demonstrate the interrelationships of living things in the forest/foothill environment.
SCIENCE THEMES:
Systems and interactions, evolution, life science
PROCESS SKILLS:
GRADE LEVELS:
K-3
FOCUS WORDS:
diversity, food chain, adaptation, interdependence, habitat, predator, prey, producer,
consumer, invertebrate, herbivore,
MATERIALS:
Hand puppet of the banana slug
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
ARIOLIMAX CALIFORNICUS, the all-yellow banana slug, is found along the coast from
Santa Crux to San Francisco. Its related cousins have color variations, (some not as bright, some
mottled with black and brown), and are found around the Pacific Basin, in China and Korea, and
from San Francisco to Alaska.
Banana slugs come out in abundance when it's damp, becoming water logged and much
heavier during damp weather. In dry weather they seem to disappear, but are hiding in the
dampest places they can find.
A banana slug lives up to two years, and when full grown is 9 to 12 inches in length. They
are hermaphrodites, (each slug has both male and female reproductive organs and can change
from one sex to the other). If no mate is available the slug will fertilize its own eggs. A banana
slug will lay its eggs in clusters under leaves at the base of a tree. The eggs are opaque and
about a quarter of an inch in diameter.
Banana slugs have two sets of antennae. The shorter set in front is a sensor used for
smell or taste in food selection. The longer set is the eyes. If an eye stalk is lost, it will regenerate
in 48 hours.
Banana slugs are scavengers and will eat whatever is available. It is an important
decomposer eating dead leaves, fallen nuts and other and plant matter. In our foothills, they enjoy
dandelions, California poppies and other wild flowers, ferns and poison oak. They are very fond of
mushrooms and even eat some varieties poisonous to humans. They frequently leave
mushrooms half eaten.
Slime protects the slug from rough or sharp surfaces as it moves, and also makes it
unpalatable. Sometimes gopher snakes, opposums and ducks consume them, but a duck will get
its beak stuck shut if it eats too many!
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION:
The EV can ask the class who lives in the forest, accepting answers of "birds, squirrels,
deer, field mice, insects, plants, trees, poison oak" etc., and correcting ones such as
"tigers, monkeys, etc.".
Banana Slug: "Don't forget me!"
EV: "Hello, who are you?"
B.S.: "I'm long, curved, smooth and yellow. Can you guess who I am?
EV: "Are you a banana?"
BANANA SLUG PUPPET
FF - 11C
1
B.S. "No, but that's part of my name and I'm shaped like one!"
EV: "Where do you live in the forest?"
B.S: "Where it's damp, often by streams. Sometimes I hide under leaves. My skin has a
slime that helps me move along on rough rocks and sticks on bumpy paths. That's why
most animals leave us banana slugs alone"
EV: "What else can you tell us about yourself?"
B.S.: ' I have 2 sets of antennae on my head. The short feelers help me to taste and
smell. The long antennae are my 2 eye stalks. If one breaks I can grow another!"
EV: ' What do you like to do?"
B.S.: " EAT! I eat dandelions, poppies, all kinds of plants, poison oak, mushrooms, dead
leaves I find on the ground. I'm a DECOMPOSER! I'm very important to the forest
community because I help make new dirt for the plants to grow in."
EV: " How?"
B.S.: I chew up plant material with my tiny teeth. It breaks down and becomes part of the
soil Then new plants can grow in the soil I help make."
EV: "How big do you become?"
B.S.: " I can grow to 12 inches long and live for 2 years. I lay my eggs under carefully
selected leaves near trees. I'm strong too, and I can stretch my neck when I eat."
EV: " Are you related to a snail?"
B.S.: " Yes, once I had a shell too, but I didn't need it and over many years it became so
small you can barely see it." I'm slow, but I do move if you watch me long enough! Will
you say hello when you see me in the forest?"
BANANA SLUG PUPPET
FF - 11C
2