One of the Slowest Races on Earth

By Natasha Wing

Banana slugs aren’t fast—but they help the redwoods.
Every August, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in California hosts one of the slowest races on Earth—the Banana-Slug Derby. A slug is a slow-moving creature with a soft body—a snail without a shell. The banana slug is one of the largest slugs in the world. It is usually six to eight inches long, but can grow up to ten inches. That makes it second only to the black European slug, which can grow to be a foot long.

The Derby started in 1968 when Ranger Paula Pennington decided it was high time banana slugs got some recognition.

“One night a friend and I decided to explore the park,” she said. “We found some banana slugs and raced them. It was so much fun that I talked to my co-workers about having a banana-slug race as a park event. They thought it was a great way to spice up the end of the summer.”

Banana slugs add that spice because they are so unusual. They got their name because of their shape and color. Some even have brown spots like ripe bananas.
Even though the derby was started just for fun, it became a way to educate people about the banana slug’s importance in the redwood forests.

Helpful Slugs
Most people think banana slugs are just slimy, lowly creatures. When banana slugs sneak into their gardens, people often kill them. Little do they know they are killing a friend to redwood trees.

Redwoods are the world’s tallest living trees. Some stand more than 360 feet high—taller than the Statue of Liberty—and may be two thousand years old.

Redwoods used to be wide-spread, but now they grow only in a narrow strip of damp (and often foggy) land along the coast of northern California and southern Oregon. People have been working for many years to keep these few redwoods alive. Today, scientists think the redwood would become a threatened species if conservation programs were not there to protect it from being cut down for its prized wood.

The trees get some help from banana slugs. A research project in California found that banana slugs don’t eat redwood seedlings. Instead, they eat other plants that take water and nutrients from the soil. Without these competing plants, redwoods have a better chance to grow.

Like most slugs and snails, banana slugs are decomposers. They eat dead plants, and their droppings put fertilizer back into the soil, giving redwood trees a nutritional boost. The slugs also eat live plants (including poison oak), fruit, seeds, and mushrooms.

Because the banana slug is not widely appreciated for the work it does, the park rangers use the Banana-Slug Derby as a chance to teach people about the slugs.
Derby day starts with special preparations. Even though slugs secrete slime to keep their bodies moist, the sun can dry up a slug and kill it.

“That’s why rangers collect and hold the slugs in a moist tank before the races begin, and the racetrack is sprayed with water,” said Ranger Pennington.
Slug jockeys (people who race slugs) choose slugs from the tank. Every racer is given a name. “Sluggy” and “Slimy” are popular.

Slugs don’t race on an ordinary track. Six slugs at a time are placed in the “bull’s-eye” of a racetrack that looks like a target. When all the slugs are in place, the judge gives the official signal and the timer starts.

Derby judges encourage the jockeys and spectators to cheer for a favorite slug. But they know slugs cannot hear. Slugs rely mostly on smell and partly on touch to get around. They have eyes at the ends of their tentacles, but see only light and dark.

Slime-Sliding
When the race starts, slugs slide on their slime. They can travel about six inches in a minute—that’s twice as fast as a snail. The first slug to touch the outer ring—eighteen inches from the center of the target—is the winner of that round. The fastest slugs then have a slug-off to see who is the fastest of them all. The person who chose the winner gets a trophy.

After the race is over, slugs are returned to the forest. Like all other plants and animals in the park, they are protected. After a day at the races, the slugs are ready to get back to their job of helping redwood trees.

As for the people, the park rangers hope they take home a new respect for the redwood forest’s unsung hero.