Thinking fondly about the entire genre of victorian hauntings that were “everybody who stayed in the house after dark saw weird shit going on for months until the entire structure suddenly combusted of its own ghostly accord” which abruptly ended as soon as we stopped lighting our homes with vast quantities of odorless gas
Prior to 2012, Desertas Island land snails had not been seen for 100 years and were assumed to have been wiped out by predators. When two Desertas Island land snail species were rediscovered, conservationists could only find a couple hundred snails throughout their entire habitat.
Although these snails are incredibly tiny, they nonetheless have a vital and unique role to play in their native ecosystem.
Due to their critically endangered status, 60 snails were removed from their wild for an emergency captive breeding program. Invertebrate specialists at the Chester Zoo and Bristol Zoological Society were able to replicate the conditions necessary for the snails to reproduceāthe captive population of Desertas Island land snail is now over 1,200.
The long term plan is for some of these captive-bred snails to be reintroduced to their native habitat on Desertas Island. This success story highlights the vital role that experienced animal husbandry specialists have to play in conservation.
