Banana Slug, Santa Cruz, Calif.

I saw plenty of these when I went to Bethany in Scotts Valley. This one was on the campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz, which is appropriate. Their teams are called the UCSC Banana Slugs—one of the best team names anywhere. When I played on the Bethany basketball team, we played the Banana Slugs twice each year, home and home. So I saw these critters right there on the campus of UCSC. They're quite impressive actually.

Photo by Jim Whitehead