Wellington, New Zealand – The strange reproductive habits of large, carnivorous New Zealand snails have once been shrouded in mystery. Now, the first time the footage of a snail laying eggs from its neck has been captured, the country’s conservation agency said Wednesday.
What appears to be a small chicken egg is emerging from the opening under the head of the Pouery Fanta Augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand.
Lisa Flanagan / Conservation Bureau via New Zealand AP
The video was filmed at a facility on the west coast of the South Island. There, conservation rangers seeking to save their species from extinction have been caring for a population of snails in cold containers for nearly 20 years.
Conditions within the container only mimic the weather in the alpine weather in its previous habitat. It is a remote mountain on the west coast of the South Island, surrounded by mining.
Lisa Flanagan of the Conservation Bureau, who has been working with living things for 12 years, said the species is still surprising.
“It’s worth noting that this is the first time we’ve seen lay eggs all the time we’ve been caring for snails,” she said in a statement.
Like other snails, the Powelli Phanta Augusta is a hermaphrodite, explaining how creatures can breed when wrapped in a hardshell. Invertebrates use genital pores on the right side of the body just below the head, simultaneously replacing sperm with another snail.
Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, then lays about five eggs a year. Eggs can take more than a year to hatch.
“Some of our prisoner snails are between 25 and 30,” Flanagan said. “They are the polar opposite of the pest garden snails we introduced to New Zealand. It’s like weeds, and they have a short life with thousands of offspring each year.”
Dozens of Powelliphanta snail species and subspecies have been found only in New Zealand and are threatened by habitat loss, mainly in rugged forest and grassland environments.
They are carnivorous carnivorous bodies that snails like noodle, and are some of the world’s largest snails with oversized, distinctive shells in a rich earthly colour and range of swirling patterns.
Powelliphanta Augusta was the heart of public fuss and legal proceedings in the early 2000s when plans by energy companies to mine for coal threatened to destroy snail habitat.
Approximately 4,000 people were removed from the site and moved, but 2,000 people were housed in refrigerated storage in the west coast town of Hokitika, ensuring seed storage.
In 2011, about 800 snails accidentally died in a maintenance refrigerator where temperature control was broken.
However, the slow survival of the species continues. In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said.
