“The greater Bermuda snail, once thought to be extinct, is now thriving. After a few hundred were discovered in Bermuda’s capital city—likely the last of their species—conservationists bred and released 100,000 of them across the island, establishing six stable populations,” reports The Doomslayer.
The Guardian reports:
A button-sized snail once feared extinct in its Bermudian home is thriving again after conservationists bred and released more than 100,000 of the molluscs.
The greater Bermuda snail was found in the fossil record but believed to have vanished from the North Atlantic archipelago, until a remnant population was discovered in a damp and overgrown alleyway in Hamilton, the island capital, in 2014.
After a decade-long international effort by conservation scientists, the government of Bermuda and Chester zoo, where thousands of the snails were bred before being transported back to the islands, the species has been confirmed as safe from extinction….
The snails, which are only found in Bermuda, were harmed by the introduction of predatory “wolf snails” and carnivorous flatworms….
At Chester zoo, keepers adapted existing snail husbandry methods to create the best conditions for the snails to multiply, keeping them in specially designed pods….
Since 2019, generations of the captive-bred snails have been returned to islands where they have been placed in protected wooded habitats.
Blue iguanas are making a comeback in the Cayman Islands.
“The critically endangered Lesser Antillean iguana is recovering after conservationists relocated some of the species’ last survivors to an island free of competing lizards,” reports The Doomslayer.
An endangered flat-headed cat was recently discovered.
The extinction rate is falling as fewer species are becoming extinct annually.
