{"id":104802,"date":"2025-08-29T06:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T06:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/104802\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T06:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T06:10:07","slug":"wildlife-photographer-does-a-double-take-when-he-encounters-moving-pickle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/104802\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife Photographer Does A Double Take When He Encounters ‘Moving Pickle’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019d never actually seen one in the flesh before.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say I was excited to meet this creature \u2026 was an understatement,\u201d Volpe wrote on X.<\/a><\/p>\n

When Volpe picked up the slug, it became clear just how pickle-like the creature really was. The animal\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just essentially a moving pickle,\u201d Volpe said on Instagram.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Pickle slugs\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose 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,\u201d IFL science<\/a> wrote on their website.<\/p>\n

To the human eye, though, these slugs look like they belong next to your sandwich. Their eggs<\/a> even look like the little pearl onions found in many pickle jars.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot sure if I\u2019ve ever seen a more fitting name for a creature before,\u201d one commenter wrote below Volpe\u2019s Instagram post.<\/p>\n

While Volpe hasn\u2019t gotten to see a pickle slug since that day two years ago, he\u2019ll always treasure the time he came face to face with one of nature\u2019s most mouth-watering invertebrates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in love with this thing,\u201d Volpe said.<\/p>\n

\"Anxious<\/a>Anxious Little Dog Meets A ‘Creepy’ Life-Size Doll And Decides It’s His BFFHe looks terrifying \ud83d\ude02<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two years ago, a wildlife photographer named Nick Volpe was walking around in the woods of Wellington, New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[16330,6587,49,48,6586,66,59982,2225,6584,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-104802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-alana-francis-crow","9":"tag-animal-encounters","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-daily-dodo","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-slugs","15":"tag-standard","16":"tag-the-dodo","17":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}