Sep 1, 2009

Ingratitude

My kids are big fans of Cheerios. When I present them with a fresh bowl of them, their eye stalks don't droop in disappointment like the Giant African Land Snail below.

This snail could learn a lesson or two (and a handy resistance to salt) from my kids. Ingrate.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

He prefers the Honey Nut variety. Can you blame him?

Sabina E. said...

lol... dude is that your snail pet?

Unknown said...

This snail is utterly adorable!

On the subject of gastropods drooping their stalk eyes, it seems that the meaning of the drooping is the opposite of what one would expect. I've kept large slugs as pets, and when they are active their eye stalks are held straight. When they're resting (sleeping, perhaps), they often have one eye just barely poking out from under their mantle so that they are not completely oblivious to their surroundings. However, when they discover food like a slice of cucumber and proceed to devour it, something strange happens. Over the course of several minutes during feeding, the slug's eyes droop more and more and eventually recede into the slug's head. I don't know why they do this, but I like to imagine that they are blinded by bliss. If nature documentary footage is any indication, their eyes also droop when they are mating...

jenjen said...

Well it would seem to me they want to get a look at what they're eating so they'd have to look down. No?

Unknown said...

I don't know what the snail is doing but I have soda coming out of my nose from laughing at the narrative.

Raging Wombat said...

I'm sorry, Jamie. Soda out the nose can be painful. But it also clears the sinuses, so it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Unknown said...

Hohoho!!! The pic is hilarious! Look at the snail, he looks almost like he was saying: "dude, seriously, you expect me to eat that?"