Detroit Zoo helps send 500 rare snails back to Tahiti after 37-year effort

A conservation effort that began nearly four decades ago is sending hundreds of tiny snails on a remarkable journey back to their native home. Five hundred Partula snails raised at the Detroit Zoo are travelling more than 5,000 miles from Michigan to Tahiti, where they will be released into the wild as part of a long-running effort to restore populations of these endangered native snails. According to the Detroit Zoological Society, the latest shipment is part of an international conservation program that has returned more than 17,000 Partula snails to their native islands. The Detroit Zoo has been involved in the effort since 1989, helping breed and care for the snails after invasive predators caused their populations to collapse in the wild.