Digging For Protection
Environmentalists are calling on the federal government to place emergency endangered species protection on a three foot long pink worm that smells like a lily and can spit when provoked. While it does sound an awful lot like somebody had a bit too much to drink, the Giant Palouse Earthworm apparently actually does exist. Kind of.
Long thought extinct, the worm was rediscovered in the past year to occupy tiny swatches of the heavily farmed Palouse region along the Washington-Idaho border.
"This worm is the stuff that legends and fairy tales are made of," worm supporter Steve Paulson declared. "What kid wouldn't want to play with a 3 foot-long, lily smelling, soft pink worm that spits?"
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not yet seen the petition regarding Driloleirus americanus, agency spokesman Tom Buckley said in Spokane.
Normally when the agency gets a request, it will consider whether an emergency listing is needed. Then it will do a 90-day review to determine if the issue warrants additional study, Buckley said.
If it deserves more study, there will be a year long review to decide if endangered species protection is needed, Buckley said.
"When you consider how the Palouse prairie has been utilized, with all the agriculture down there, how anything like that survived the effects of agriculture is beyond me," Buckley said.
The stuff of legends? Or a bad case of the DTs? Anyway, it seems there have suddenly been a real rash of the extremely rare species popping up and being used to force protection on various areas lately. But in this case they actually may have a point. You see, the news report does not tell the full story. The worm in question was "discovered" by a researcher digging in the soil. The worm in question was also cut in half by said researcher's shovel. The worm in question is a very dead worm. No word if it got to spit before it passed away.
I demand the federal government immediately ban researchers from cutting the "stuff of legends" into pieces with their shovels!
By Woodsprite, Friday, 8 September , 2006 @ 12:10 pm
The Palouse is also home to Washington State University, a school well known for it’s alcohol consumption. Not that alcohol consumption would have anything to do with sitings of three foot long spitting worms.
By Gaius, Friday, 8 September , 2006 @ 12:12 pm
But suddenly stopping drinking might. Or pink elephants. Or bugs. See that hole? RATS come out of that hole……..