Special pods at Chester zoo helped conservationists breed and release more than 100,000 greater Bermuda snails
A button-sized snail once feared extinct in its Bermudian home is thriving again after conservationists bred and released more than 100,000 of the molluscs.
The greater Bermuda snail (Poecilozonites bermudensis) was found in the fossil record but believed to have vanished from the North Atlantic archipelago, until a remnant population was discovered in a damp and overgrown alleyway in Hamilton, the island capital, in 2014.
After a decade-long international effort by conservation scientists, the government of Bermuda and Chester zoo, where thousands of the snails were bred before being transported back to the islands, the species has been confirmed as safe from extinction.
“It’s every conservationist’s dream to help save a whole species – and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” said Tamás Papp, the invertebrates assistant team manager at Chester zoo. “This scientific confirmation that we’ve saved them is testament to the role zoos can play in preventing extinction, and in the power of collaboration, and is something everyone involved will carry in their heart.”
