Bermuda snail rebounds from under 200 survivors to 100,000 released
The Bermuda snail, once thought extinct for 40 years, has been successfully reintroduced to its native habitat after a captive breeding program at Chester Zoo. Conservationists released 100,000 snails into protected woodlands to help the species recover from habitat loss and invasive predators.
Why it matters
This success story highlights the effectiveness of international conservation partnerships in reversing biodiversity loss and preventing species extinction.
The great Bermuda snail, which was once considered to be lost forever, is now safe and secure. The species known as Poecilozonites bermudensis was believed to be lost for over 40 years until a small surviving population was rediscovered in a damp alleyway in the North Atlantic archipelago's capital, Hamilton, about ten years ago. They were hidden from predators by a concrete block.The tiny group of snails was moved to Chester Zoo in the UK, where zoo keepers remade an ideal habitat for the snails to grow and breed. A partnership between the government of Bermuda, a conservation researcher from the Canada-based organisation Biolinx Environmental Research, and Chester Zoo, where thousands of snails were carefully bred before being returned to Bermuda, made it possible.The snails, which are only found in Bermuda, had been hit by global heating and habitat loss.
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