[♪ INTRO]
This spinach we picked from our garden looks so yummy!
It’s going to be great in our salad later.
Hey Squeaks—Have you ever wondered why we need to eat food,
like salad, to fuel our bodies, but we never see plants eat?
[Squeaks squeaks curiously]
Well, that’s because plants can use sunlight to make food inside them.
And they do it using green leaves like this!
[Squeaks is amazed!]
Right?
But you want to know what’s even cooler than that?
There’s an animal that can last a whole year without eating anything
because it also has this superpower!
It can make food inside its body with light, too!
The animal is a special kind of slug called the emerald elysia!
Here, let me pull up a picture…
It’s pretty, right?
I think it kind of looks like a leaf,
which seems right, since it sort of acts like one, too.
Now, most slugs are small, squishy animals that you might see
sliming their way across plants or the ground.
But we wouldn’t find this slug on one of our hikes or in our garden.
These slugs actually live in the ocean.
That might seem weird, since ocean water is salty, and slugs
on land hate salt.
People even put salt around their plants, like lettuce or cabbage,
to stop slugs from eating them!
But sea slugs have been living in the ocean for a long time,
so they don’t mind the saltiness.
And that's great, because living in the ocean
is what gives these slugs their superpower.
[Squeaks asks a question]
Good guess, Squeaks!
They don’t use the salty water to make their food, though.
Instead, they get their superpowers by eating something else
that lives in the ocean.
Something called algae.
Algae are related to the plants that grow on land—
they’re kind of like their cousins.
But they live in the water, and they come in all kinds
of shapes and sizes.
They can be really big.
Some kinds are as tall as trees!
Or they can be super tiny—smaller than you can see with your eyes!
But a whole bunch of them together can turn water green—like in a pond!
[Squeaks squeaks]
Yeah, algae are awesome.
And here’s a really important thing to know about them:
Just like the plants on land, algae can use sunlight to make their own food!
To do that, both plants and algae use tiny little compartments
inside them called chloroplasts.
Chloroplasts are kind of like sun-powered machines that make food!
And, they happen to be green.
In fact, they’re why leaves and algae are green.
Each leaf is packed full of these little machines!
And since sea slugs eat algae… can you guess where I’m going with this?
[Squeaks gets it!]
Exactly!
Since sea slugs eat algae, they also eat their chloroplasts.
And then, they can use those little machines to turn light into food!
[Squeaks squeaks excitedly]
I know, right?
Can you imagine if we could become sun-powered by eating salads?
That would be awesome.
But, sadly, we can’t.
When we eat foods that contain these little, green machines—
like our spinach leaves—our stomachs just break them into smaller pieces.
But that’s not true for emerald elysia slugs.
They can take these machines from the algae they eat
and keep them running.
So, after eating some algae when they’re young,
they get their superpowers, and can make food with light!
Then, they can keep making their own food for up to a year!
Though, sometimes, they have a little algae snack before then
to get some more chloroplasts.
[Squeaks squeaks excitedly]
I agree, Squeaks.
They’re pretty amazing slugs.
Well, I don’t know about you Squeaks, but I’m getting hungry!
Want to go pick some tomatoes to add to the salad?
It won’t feed us for an entire year, but it will calm my rumbly tummy.
[Squeaks squeaks in excited agreement]
Awesome.
We’re going to head to the garden.
If you want to keep learning and having fun with me, Squeaks,
and all our friends, be sure to hit the subscribe button,
and we’ll see you next time here at the Fort!
[♪ OUTRO]