Wellington, New Zealand (AP)-The strange reproductive habits of a large Carnivorous New Zealand snail were once surrounded…
Wellington, New Zealand (AP) – Strange reproductive habits of a large carnivore New Zealand The snail was once wrapped in mystery. Now, images of the snail laying an egg from its neck have been captured for the first time, the country's conservation agency announced on Wednesday.
What looks like a small egg in a hen is seen to emerge from an opening under the head of the Powelliphanta Augusta snail, a endangered species of New Zealand.
The video was taken in an installation on the west coast of the southern island, where the conservation guards trying to save the species of extinction took care of a population of snails in refrigerated containers for almost two decades.
The conditions in the containers imitate the alpine time in their only old habitat – a remote mountain for which they were appointed, on the west coast of the southern island, which was swallowed up by mining.
Observe their habits
Lisa Flanagan of Conservation departmentWho has worked with creatures for 12 years, said the species always has surprises.
“It is remarkable that in all the time that we have spent taking care of snails, this is the first time that we have seen an egg to lay down,” she said in a statement.
Like other snails, Powelliphanta Augusta are hermaphrodites, which explains how creatures can reproduce when they are locked in a hard shell. The invertebrate uses a genital pore on the right side of his body, just below the head, to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until everyone creates an egg.
A long but slow reproductive life
Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which it lays about five eggs per year. The egg can take more than a year to hatch.
“Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old,” said Flanagan. “These are polar opposites at the snail on the garden of pests that we presented in New Zealand, which is like a bad grass, with thousands of descendants each year and a short life.”
The dozens of species and the subspecies of Escargots of Powelliphanta are only found in New Zealand, mainly in the rugged forests and the meadows where they are threatened by the loss of habitat.
These are carnivores who slide up from earthworms like noodles, and are some of the largest snails in the world, with oversized and distinctive shells in a range of rich earth colors and swirling patterns.
A political storm
Powelliphanta Augusta was the center of public outcry and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when the plans of an energy company to exploit coal threatened to destroy the habitat of snails.
Some 4,000 have been removed from the site and moved, while 2,000 others were housed in refrigerated storage in the city of the west coast of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to reproduce and does not adapt well to new habitats.
In 2011, around 800 of the snails accidentally died in a refrigerator of the Ministry of Conservation with a defective temperature control.
But the slow survival of the species continues: in March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 captivity eggs, the conservation agency said.
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