Thursday, July 25, 2013

So THAT's why the Hellbender Salamander is always in the bathroom...

Yesterday I was listening to MPR (pretentious dog flag - I should create a tag for that...) and heard a news item about the Hellbender Salamander, a subspecies known as Cryptobranchidae that grows to over two feet in length.


What immediately caught my attention about the piece was a casual mention of the fact that the Hellbender Salamander is more commonly know by its nickname... wait for it...

The Snot Otter.

Which officially edges out 'Carlos Danger' for this weeks Best.  Nickname.  EVER.*

*As a curious coincidence, they are also both popular nicknames for 17 year old boys to give to their genitalia...

The actual point of the news article - which was, surprisingly, interesting enough to distract me from the phrase 'Snot Otter' - was that environmental biologists have fairly recently discovered a way to track the presence of various species through DNA evidence in local ground water.

I know, right??

It all started with an effort to prove the existence of bullfrogs in a particular pond.  Scientist took a water sample from the pond, analyzed it for DNA from that species of Bullfrog, found said DNA and proclaimed, 'Yup, they's bullfrogs heyah'.

This segued into a discussion of hos the technology had been adapted to identify the existence of the Hellbender Salamander in areas of the Ozarks where it was thought to have died out - at which point I lost track of the discussion because I had just heard the words 'Snot Otter' and my brain needed a moment to process that much joy.

When I regrouped enough to rejoin the discussion, they were talking about how it was a particularly good time to identify the Snot Otter, as it was their mating season and...

You're going to need to take a moment to prepare for this...

No...seriously...

Just take a moment...

To quote NPR directly - 'In mating season, the Hellbender Salamander sloughs off a large amount of DNA'

I don't know about you, but that is not what I called it back in high school...

And so, world, allow me to gift you with this new euphemism for your personal gentleman time-

'Tracking the Snot Otter'

You're welcome, Planet.

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