Ordinarily inactive creatures will tug like two dogs who want the same bone.
As quiet and motionless as they usually are, you can almost forget that sea urchins are, in fact, animals. That means that they have to eat, but what sort of things do they munch on?
Sea urchins can actually survive on a variety of foods, depending on their exact species and environment. At Aburatsubo Marine Park (the same place we shook hands with an otter) in Kanagawa Prefecture, for example, one of the things the resident sea urchins eat is cabbage. What’s more, the cabbage isn’t chopped up into tiny, algae-sized pieces, but placed in the creatures’ tank in large leaves.
But what happens when two sea urchins both eye the same leaf? The same thing that happens when any other two animals both want the same piece of food: they each grab an end and pull.
The above photos were shared by the official Twitter account of Cellutane, a Kanagawa-based furniture maker. As they made their way around the Internet, numerous Twitter users expressed shock that not only can sea urchins eat cabbage, but that they’ll compete for it like this. The surreal cuteness of the contest inspired one commenter to add some anime-style facial features…
…while one in-the-know commenter posted his own photo of a cabbage-eating specimen.
It’s still not really clear why Cellutane is tweeting about an aquarium, other than some home-prefecture pride, but the company figured with the cute sea urchin photos getting so much attention, it may as well remind people that it makes cute, quirky furniture too. Maybe now they’ll be inspired to make a sea urchin sofa.
Oh, and in case you were wondering what sea urchins’ mouths look like, or simply want something new to have night terrors about, here’s a video.
▼ More or less horrifying than penguin mouths? You make the call!
It’s also worth noting that for most Japanese people, their primary use of sea urchins is as food (the uni at sushi restaurants is sea urchin), and so the photos prompted some people to wonder whether sea urchins raised on cabbage would taste differently from ones that survive strictly on marine-sourced food. But since Aburatsubo Marine Park is an aquarium and not a restaurant, that will have to remain a mystery.
Source: Twitter/@cellutane01 via IT Media