Miyazaki's Soot Balls in Real Life
Have you watched My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki? If you have, you know what I’m talking about when I say that these hatpin urchins look just like his soot balls!
Urchins can come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colours and patterns. These long-spined hatpin urchins are more formally referred to as Diadema Savignyi and are found in the Indo-Pacific – Africa to the South Pacific. During the day, these urchins hide in the shade. They come out at night to hunt for small invertibrates along reefs. Though they’re not poisonous, they are prickly. I’ve been told that if you try to attack one you’ll not only be pricked, but the urchin’s spike will break off and potentially cause more pain by getting stuck in your muscle or vein. I’m not sure if this is true but I’m not about to try something stupid to find out.
Interesting factoid: You can tell one species of long-spined urchin from the next by the coloured rings around the anus and the stripes (or lack of stripes) along its prickly parts.
What I learned at the Vancouver Aquarium: Not to use flash when taking a picture of the species tag (it reflects off the plastic) so I don’t spend so much time trying to figure out which urchin I took a picture of. 
