Look Out For Intelligent Slime!

Think you know your waxcaps from your dog vomit slime mould? Exmoor’s conservation team needs our help to record the pretty and the not-so-pretty wildlife living in this unique national park. finds out more

- Chrissy Harris

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; everything has its place in the world – but dog vomit slime mould? “Slime mould is the most amazing thing,” says Patrick Watts-Mabbott, Exmoor National Park outreach officer. “It’s a single-celled colony of organisms that come together to form fungilike sporing masses.”

I’m still not sold on the idea, so Patrick goes on to tell me that he’s just read a book which explains that slime mould is an intelligent being, with evidence to show that they can make decisions and solve complex problems. It turns out that this dog vomit, a peculiar, yellowish fungi, also known as the slightly more appealing-sounding ‘scrambledegg’ slime, is actually much more than just a gross, wobbly substance on the side of some dead wood.

Patrick, who has worked or volunteered on Exmoor since he was 13 years old (he’s now ‘in his forties’) is passionate about all wildlife – even the slimy stuff.

He helps to co-ordinate the national park’s WildWatch programme, aimed at encouraging locals and visitors to record sightings of any birds, plants, insects, mammals and plants they spot in this uniquely diverse moorland habitat. Usually, this is done through teams of volunteers and organised events. During lockdown, however, Patrick has been encouraging people to take pictures of their findings while out walking before uploading them to the ‘Exmoor Wildwatch’ and ‘Exmoor from Home’ sections on an app, called iNaturalist.