Help us find the giant pink slug
Mount Kaputar National Park is home to a threatened group of 11 snail species and one giant pink slug, found nowhere else on Earth. Download the Slug Sleuth app and help us save them.
As part of the Saving Our Species program, National Parks and Wildlife Service is working to understand and manage the snail and slug threatened ecological community (TEC) in Mount Kaputar National Park and the Nandewar Ranges.
Visitors to Mount Kaputar National Park can become citizen scientists and assist in this project by recording and reporting sightings of the giant pink slug via the Slug Sleuth app.
High-elevation ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and Mount Kaputar, near Narrabri, includes areas of subalpine and other ecosystems that are home to the giant pink slug.
By reporting sightings, you are helping scientists determine where the slug is found, its habitat preferences and if it's being affected by a changing climate over time.
The Kaputar or giant pink slug is fluorescent pink and grows to around 20 cm long and 6 cm wide. It feeds at night on the biofilm of lichen, fungi and micro-algae on the surface of eucalypt bark and rock faces. It can be seen on cool misty mornings as it descends to hide among the leaf litter of the forest floor. The slugs are most commonly observed during and after rainfall.
The app was developed as part of the NSW Government's Saving our Species program and is free to download for both iOS and Android devices. Use the search term 'Slug Sleuth' or 'Kaputar' to find the app in your preferred app store.
- Find out more about the Mount Kaputar snail and slug community
- Download Slug Sleuth – App Store
- Download Slug Sleuth – Google Play
