Repository of Randomness: Sea Bunnies

I think I might accidentally be falling in love with sea slugs, because they're a lot more adorable and interesting than the ones on land. You might see a few more of them in the near future, but that's more because they're adorable than anything else.

Case in point: Sea Bunnies.

This image is from The Strange Animals link below. It's a podcast, if you'd rather hear them talk about Sea Bunnies while staring adoringly at a picture of them. I won't, but only because I already decided to listen to the podcast when I get to number 420, later. Going back over something this cute isn't a bad thing, and a reminder to see what new things get learned about them can be good.

For those interested, you can also buy a plush version of these guys to cuddle. That may or may not be what tipped me off to them. Strangely, the same way the Strange Animals people found a plush version, by going in the day after Valentine's Day and finding them on sale.

So, the sea bunny is a type of sea slug, also known as nudibranchs, which are a type of mollusk, like oysters. Same family tree, vastly different critters. Sea Bunnies live in tropical waters, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, and have lifespans of a few months to a year. They're covered in a fuzzy coating of protuberances they use to feel the world, and have two black stalks of chemoreceptors on top that look like bunny ears, plus gills on their 'butt' that look like a fluffy tail. Picture below, from A-Z Animals, shows their fuzzy-butts too, but looks a bit less bunny-like. A bit.

Despite their innocent and fluffy-looking appearance, these guys are actually poisonous because they eat sea sponges that have toxins in them, which the itty-bitty bunny absorbs. That's actually why they don't get eaten much either, because anything that can handle the toxins wouldn't see these tiny, one-inch long creatures as anything near big enough to be worth eating. That's not to say there aren't critters that eat them, like sea-hares and cone snails, but they're pretty off the menu for most. They aren't too picky about what to eat though, so some of them might actually also have jellyfish poison in them too, which means any plans of cuddling one might lead to skin irritation for humans to. So, either stick to imaginary cuddles, get a plush, or I guess we can wear gloves.

Until then, this is my plush sea bunny, named Disco because of the shinies and because the family group for him is Discodorididae. I'll give him cuddles for all the sea bunnies I can't cuddle. Let me know if I need to cuddle him for you too.