Preventing the extinction of snails is not an easy task. For starters, their habitats are too easy to destroy. On the other hand, we do not even know what is needed to keep most species of live snails in captivity ‘That is because they have very specific needs as they live in microhábitats-. “A species of snails can base their feeding hundreds of species of fungi that are unique to a particular forest,” says Rundell. “It is very difficult to replicate these diets in the laboratory.” Only a handful of efforts to raise snails in captivity has been successful, and demand labor intensive and difficult to finance, Rundell said.
Rundell work that has made studying snails in the Pacific Islands has taught him what it would take to stop the march toward the extinction of snails. “Ultimately, the most important thing for terrestrial snails is the human element: that people work together to protect the most special, precious and irreplaceable of these islands: their native forests,” he says. “This means documenting what’s in there using a combination of field work and study of specimens in natural history museums.
It also involves learning the lessons that we provide the uncontrolled development of the past, including agriculture and subsequent urbanization, especially in tropical lowland forests, and find out how we can protect as many of the remaining pieces as possible. This would have the added advantage of leaving intact parts of the basin, storm protection, plus food and medicinal forest resources so that people can survive in these places. ”
So why does it matter if the snails are dying? Like everything else, the snails are an important piece of the puzzle that makes the world work. They are also a way to help better understand how we got here, and maybe where we’re going.
