Reward the rabbit for coming closer to you. First, approach your rabbit calmly so you do not elicit a fear response from the rabbit. Just resist the urge to touch those rabbit ears.Address any aggression in your rabbit. For instance, slugs in the genus Glaucus will attack and eat one of the most venomous jelly-like animals out there, the Portuguese man-of-war.Īdmire and coo over the fuzzy little creature now known as the sea bunny.
Sea slugs in other groups can steal the stingers right out of jellyfish and use them in their own defense. Dorids eat sponges, and some of their toxins are also used in cancer treatments for people. parva, called the dorid nudibranchs, the sea bunny steals its toxic defenses from its food. Like all the sea slugs in the group containing J. "Anyone who tries to eat them is going to have a very hard time afterwards." (Read about how sea slug chemical blasts deter lobsters.) parva doesn't have to worry much about predators during its brief life because "they're very, very toxic," the sea slug expert says. "They probably live just a few months to a year," Valdés says, so every chance they get to mate is important. (See "Why Sea Slugs Dispose of Their Own Penises.") This ensures that they stay attached to each other until the sperm exchange is done, he explains. It's basically like a dart that the animal jabs into its partner during the mating process. The cuddly-looking creatures come armed with "incredibly long copulatory spines," says Valdés. They have both male and female reproductive organs, and when they mate, both partners exchange sperm. The sea bunny, like most sea slugs or nudibranchs, is a hermaphrodite. The structure on the sea bunny's behind that looks like a little "flower" are its gills. parva to sense its environment very efficiently. The rhinophores are covered in little flaps that boost their detection capabilities, allowing J. Called rhinophores, they detect chemicals in the water that helps sea bunnies find food and mates, says Valdés. The sea bunny's "ears," or the two antenna-like structures on top of its head, are most definitely sensory organs. "We don't know for sure what these organs do," says Ángel Valdés, a sea slug expert at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. They're arranged around little knobs that are sometimes black, giving the sea bunny its speckled appearance. Jorunna parva's fur-like coat is due to bunches of tiny rods, called caryophyllidia, that cover the animal's back. (See pictures of other colorful sea slugs.) Though the most popular images of these animals show white animals with black spots, these sea slugs are usually yellow or orange. Most are less than an inch (2.5 centimeters) long and can be found throughout the Indo-Pacific Ocean from South Africa to the central Pacific. The creature eliciting "awwws" around the world is a type of sea slug called Jorunna parva. The animal isn't actually a tiny ocean-dwelling rabbit.
Say hello to this week's Internet overlord, the fluffy-looking "sea bunny." Watch as they (very) slowly make their way across the seafloor. Video of the sea bunny-taken last year-has gone viral on the internet this week.