Latest news with #LisaFlanagan
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
This Giant Snail Lays Eggs Out of Its Neck… Yes, Seriously
If you thought human birth was seriously twisted, get a load of the Mount Augustus snail from New Zealand. This giant carnivorous gastropod pushes 5-millimeter-wide eggs out of a pore just below its head. The pain-in-the-neck form of reproduction was recently caught on camera by Lisa Flanagan, a ranger at NZ's Department of Conservation (DOC), who has been caring for a captive population of these snails (Powelliphanta augusta) since 2006. "It's remarkable that in all the time we've spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we've seen one lay an egg," says Flanagan. "We caught the action when we were weighing the snail. We turned it over to be weighed and saw the egg just starting to emerge from the snail." Powelliphanta are among the largest snails in the world, and they comb through NZ's forest and grasslands slurping up earthworms like spaghetti. P. augusta is one of the more famous species (nearly 10 centimeters in length), and it was only discovered by the DOC in 2005, when most of the snail's habitat was subject to mining. The wild population is now confined to just a few introduced sites, where the snail hasn't lived historically, but a captive colony exists of roughly 2,000 individuals as a genetic insurance policy. These are some of the longest-living snails in the world – some of the captive snails under Flanagan's care are between 25 and 30 years old. "I just love watching their progress each month, weighing them, how their shells develop, and all the interesting things they do," says Flanagan. While they usually lay around five eggs per year, starting from about the age of eight, this is the first time scientists in New Zealand have seen the egg-laying in action. The species is a hermaphrodite, meaning each individual has male and female genitalia. To mate, each snail pushes out a penis from its neck pore and pokes it into the pore of the other snail. Both individuals exchange sperm and then store it for later fertilization. It is from this same neck pore that a fertilized egg later emerges. Talk about evolutionary efficiency. Cephalopods Passed a Cognitive Test Designed For Human Children Study Reveals How Your Cat Remembers Who You Are 'Lost City' Deep Beneath The Ocean Is Unlike Anything We've Seen Before on Earth
The Star
23-05-2025
- Science
- The Star
Footage of rare snail laying an egg from its neck captured for the first time
A Powelliphanta augusta snail laying an egg from its neck at the Hokitika nnail housing facility. — LISA FLANAGAN/New Zealand Department of Conservation/AP The strange reproductive habits of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail were once shrouded in mystery. Now footage of the snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured for the first time, the country's conservation agency said. What looks like a tiny hen's egg is seen emerging from an opening below the head of the Powelliphanta augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand. The video was taken at a facility on the South Island's West Coast, where conservation rangers attempting to save the species from extinction have cared for a population of the snails in chilled containers for nearly two decades. The conditions in the containers mimic the alpine weather in their only former habitat – a remote mountain they were named for, on the west coast of the South Island, that has been engulfed by mining. Lisa Flanagan from the Department of Conservation, who has worked with the creatures for 12 years, said the species still holds surprises. 'It's remarkable that in all the time we've spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we've seen one lay an egg,' she said in a statement. Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites, which explains how the creatures can reproduce when encased in a hard shell. The invertebrate uses a genital pore on the right side of its body, just below the head, to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg. Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which it lays about five eggs a 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. 'They're polar opposites to the pest garden snail we introduced to New Zealand, which is like a weed, with thousands of offspring each year and a short life.' The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings where they are threatened by habitat loss. They are carnivores that slurp up earthworms like noodles, and are some of the world's largest snails, with oversized, distinctive shells in a range of rich earth colours and swirling patterns. The Powelliphanta augusta was the centre of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when an energy company's plans to mine for coal threatened to destroy the snails' habitat. Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn't adapt well to new habitats. In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control. But the species' slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said. – AP
Kuwait Times
22-05-2025
- Science
- Kuwait Times
What the shell: Scientists marvel as NZ snail lays egg from neck
A Mount Augustus snail laying an egg through its neck in Hokitika, New Zealand. A rare New Zealand snail has been filmed for the first time squeezing an egg from its neck, delighting scientists trying to save the critically endangered meat-eating mollusc. Threatened by coal mining in New Zealand's South Island, a small population of the Mount Augustus snail was transplanted from its forest habitat almost 20 years ago to live in chilled containers tended by humans. Little is known about the reproduction of the shellbound critters, which can grow so large that New Zealand's conservation department calls them 'giants of the snail world'. A conservation ranger said she was gobsmacked to witness a captive snail laying an egg from its neck -- a reproductive act well documented in other land snails but never filmed for this species. 'It's remarkable that in all the time we've spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we've seen one lay an egg,' conservation ranger Lisa Flanagan said this week. An egg laid by a Mount Augustus snail through its neck in Hokitika, New Zealand. A Mount Augustus snail laying an egg through its neck in Hokitika, New Zealand. An egg laid by a Mount Augustus snail through its neck in Hokitika, New Zealand. 'We caught the action when we were weighing the snail. We turned it over to be weighed and saw the egg just starting to emerge from the snail.' Conservation department scientist Kath Walker said hard shells made it difficult to mate -- so some snails instead evolved a special 'genital pore' under their head. The Mount Augustus snail 'only needs to peek out of its shell to do the business,' she said. The long-lived snails can grow to the size of a golf ball and their eggs can take more than a year to hatch. They eat earthworms, according to New Zealand's conservation department, which they slurp up 'like we eat spaghetti'. Conservation efforts suffered a drastic setback in 2011, when a faulty temperature gauge froze 800 Mount Augustus snails to death inside their climate-controlled containers. Fewer than 2,000 snails currently live in captivity, while small populations have been re-established in the New Zealand wild.--AFP
CBC
16-05-2025
- Science
- CBC
Researchers egg-static to capture 1st footage of this rare snail spawning from its neck
After a dozen years dedicated to studying a rare species of carnivorous snail, Lisa Flanagan was thrilled to finally film the moment that, until recently, had been shrouded in mystery. Flanagan, a ranger at the New Zealand Department of Conservation, was weighing a Powelliphanta augusta snail when she saw what looked like a tiny hen's egg emerging from a small opening beneath its head. "It was just one of those things that was just a fluke," Flanagan told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "He happened to be laying the egg at that time." Powelliphanta augusta snails take eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which they lay about five eggs a year, through an opening in their neck. But, despite almost two decades of caring for the critters in chilled containers at a facility in Hokitika, N.Z., staff had never witnessed this unfold until that fateful moment on May 7. The whole thing took just under one minute, Flanagan says. N.Z. carnivorous snail filmed for 1st time laying an egg from its neck 4 hours ago Duration 1:03 The footage, she says, confirms certain details about these snails' reproductive cycle, while prompting new ones for those who work with the creatures. In the clip, as the egg emerges, a baffled Flanagan can be heard saying to her colleague: "I wonder if it hurts." Meet one of the world's largest carnivorous snails The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings, where they are threatened by habitat loss. At roughly nine centimetres in length, the Powelliphanta augusta is one of the largest carnivorous snails in the world, known to slurp up earthworms like noodles. Even observing their eating habits has been a rarity for Flanagan. Although they are fed monthly, in the 12 years of looking after these snails, she and her colleagues had only seen them gulp a worm three or four times. The Powelliphanta augusta was the centre of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when coal mining company Solid Energy threatened to destroy the snails' only habitat on the Mount Augustus ridge line. Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn't adapt well to new habitats. In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control. But the species' slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said. Why the neck? While reproducing from the side of the neck may seem odd, it is, in fact, par for the course for snails. That's because they are encased in protective shells that allow them to retreat from predators and poor weather conditions. This evolutionary trait, however, can also cause complications, like how to mate with other snails and successfully reproduce, says Kath Walker, the N.Z. Department of Conservation's senior science advisor,. "Powelliphanta have solved this by having an opening (a genital pore) on the right side of their body just below their head," Walker said in a press release. Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites. So, in order to mate, the invertebrate uses the genital pore to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg. "The snail only needs to peek out of its shell to do the business," Walker said. While most snails lay eggs, some reproduce through live birth — also via their neck. Last July, the Campbell keeled glass-snail was captured on video as birthing offspring at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. The video shows a mini snail — shell, tentacles, and all — slipping out of its parent's neck. Flanagan said that it is common for Powelliphanta augusta snail eggs to take, on average, 400 days to hatch. When the day finally arrives, she said it "just hatches out as a little tiny wee snail." She says she hopes her own video out of Hokitika shows others how amazing these snails are. "People sort of tend to think it's not like, you know, a fluffy little kiwi or a penguin or something like that. It's just a snail. But no, they're there for a reason," she said.
CBC
16-05-2025
- Science
- CBC
N.Z. carnivorous snail filmed for 1st time laying an egg from its neck
Lisa Flanagan, a ranger at New Zealand's Department of Conservation, filmed the moment the Powelliphanta augusta snail laid its egg from the genital pore in the side of its neck. (Credit: New Zealand Department of Conservation)
