The giant gurgling earthworms of Gippsland

September 6, 2024 8:17 PM

The giant gurgling earthworms of Gippsland. The secrets of giant earthworms that live beneath the rolling hills of eastern Victoria — where they can be heard but are rarely seen — are set to be revealed in new research. This is a species of annelid worm called the giant Gippsland earthworm (Megascolides australis). It earns the name giant because an average adult is a metre [3.2 feet] long — making it one of the biggest earthworms in the world.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (21 comments total)

There's a new sound, the newest sound around!
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:21 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]

The giant gurgling earthworms of Gippsland

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, it's time to play "Classic Sci-Fi Story, or Unpublished Gullliver's Travels chapter"!
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:34 PM on September 6 [5 favorites]

Unpublished Gullliver's Travels chapter

Nah, this is clearly a lost chapter out of Ludvig Prinn's De Vermis Mysteriis.
posted by Avelwood at 8:43 PM on September 6 [5 favorites]

Five year old me was absolutely entranced by the giant worm museum (atlas obscura) (now closed.)

Cool beasties!
posted by freethefeet at 9:01 PM on September 6 [1 favorite]

Bless the Maker and His water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world. May He keep the world for His people.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:36 PM on September 6 [14 favorites]

I am fairly freaked out that this is not the biggest earthworm out there.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 9:47 PM on September 6

Gippsland is also the location of what claims to be the world's biggest meat pie bakery and sometimes if I'm walking by there in the wee hours I'll hear... gurgling.

There's more to this than meats the eye.
posted by flabdablet at 11:39 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]

That's gonna be a no from me, dog.
posted by lkc at 12:56 AM on September 7

I had to nope out at the first picture. There's no excuse for a human thumb being anywhere near even a normal worm, but that...thing? I almost dislocated every bone in my body shuddering.

Chariots, if I may propose a new rule of, er, thumb: "If it has fur, I concur; wriggly or slimy? Cor blimey!"
posted by BCMagee at 1:02 AM on September 7 [3 favorites]

You can hear the gurgling here.

I once visited the Giant Earthworm Museum—sad to hear it's shut. The building was in the shape of a giant worm. (Lying along the ground, not rearing up like a cobra.)

The sound of it makes a bloke squirm:
That's no snake in the earth, it's a worm.
This native of Gippsland
Is giant, and rips land
Asunder, Vic. farmers confirm.
posted by rory at 1:56 AM on September 7 [5 favorites]

Bow-chicks-wow … no.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 3:35 AM on September 7

I wonder whether ordinary earthworms gurgle, but too quietly for us to hear.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 5:01 AM on September 7 [4 favorites]

I like that at least some land owners are considering the needs of subterranean inhabitants of the land as well. I mean, they’re not exactly charismatic megafauna, but they deserve consideration.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:47 AM on September 7 [4 favorites]

Assuming these are the inspiration for The Worms of Kukumlima?
posted by latkes at 6:58 AM on September 7 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: they’re not exactly charismatic megafauna, but they deserve consideration.
posted by Windopaene at 8:36 AM on September 7 [1 favorite]

They're charismatic megafauna to me.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:40 PM on September 7 [2 favorites]

The spice must flow
posted by stevil at 5:57 PM on September 8

TIL that the initial G in Gippsland is pronounced as in "GIF", and not as I previously thought: as in "GIF"
posted by scruss at 6:51 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]

No, it is pronounced as in "GIF".
posted by flabdablet at 8:30 AM on September 10

Goat, not Giraffe.
posted by freethefeet at 6:31 AM on September 29

TIL that the initial G in Goat and Giraffe is pronounced as in "GIF", and not as I previously thought: as in "GIF"
posted by flabdablet at 1:44 AM on October 1