‘Tiny’ creature went extinct in wild decades ago. Now there’s a ‘momentous’ birth

It’s a “momentous milestone” for a tiny creature whose species was nearly wiped out decades ago.

While releasing thousands of the rare snails back into the French Polynesian wild, conservationists stumbled upon a Partula snail, commonly known as a Polynesian tree snail, that had not been marked.

The missing dot of yellow UV reflective paint wasn’t a mistake. It was proof that the extinct-in-the-wild species had reproduced in the wild, according to a Sept. 25 news release from the Zoological Society of London.

The rare snails, which are 1mm to 2mm in length, nearly went extinct in the 1980s and early 1990s when predatory snail species were introduced to French Polynesia to control the African giant land snail, according to the society.

Now that the “incredibly rare” species has reestablished itself, “conservationists will now begin the process of downlisting the snails from Extinct-in-the-Wild to Critically Endangered on the IUCN’s Red List,” the society said.

“Though (these little) snails have great cultural, scientific and conservation value,” London Zoo’s Senior Curator of Invertebrates and program leader Paul Pearce-Kelly said. “Partula snails have always been part of Polynesia’s rich cultural heritage and play an important role in the ecological health of their forest habitats.”

The snails feed on decaying plant tissue and fungi, experts said.

Zoos across the United Kingdom and North America worked for years to preserve and breed the snails after rescuing the last of the remaining species from the wild in the early 1990s.

In the U.S., the Detroit Zoological Society, Saint Louis Zoo, Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas and Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle participated in this rehabilitation program.

The snail’s reintroduction to the wild started about 10 years ago, the society said. Since then, conservationists have released over 30,000 snails on the islands of Tahiti, Moorea and Huahine in French Polynesia.

“This collaborative conservation effort is playing a crucial role in saving these species from extinction,” Pearce-Kelly said. “It’s a powerful example of how conservation zoos can combat biodiversity loss. At a time when nature faces unprecedented challenges, these small snails are a symbol of hope for global wildlife.”

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