Carrying on

Sorry for the dreadful pun. Five slugs feed on a dead mouse; tail and one hind leg just visible.

There were alarmist stories three years ago about a tribe of 'killer slugs' from Spain that 'have been found eating dead mice', but in fact it appears that most species of slug (of which there are many) will feed on carrion. All part of the work they do in cleaning up (and two days later there was little left of this mouse - see extra picture - and the workers were moving on). It's just unfortunate that so much of what they clear up is stuff that we were planning to eat. 

What struck me most about this scene was the extreme slowness of the process. Watching for several minutes, I detected no movement. They might be assumed to be sucking, but according to this site 'slugs eat using a radula, a rasping, tongue-like organ, covered with thousands of tiny tooth-like protrusions called denticles.' 

Sex is not quite as slow a process, and can be weirdly exciting to watch, as David Attenborough noticed.