Mysterious and vulnerable: the secret lives of Australia’s giant worms

Dr Beverley Van Praagh holding a giant Gippsland earthworm. Photograph: Rodney Start / Credit: Museums Victoria

One of the world’s largest worms might escape notice, if not for the loud gurgling noises that can be heard coming from underground as the species burrows and squelches through its moist clay.

The giant Gippsland earthworm, a purple and pink colossus that lives in a small, wet patch about 100km east of Melbourne in south-east Australia, reportedly stretches as long as 2 to 3 metres.