Mission under way to save ‘world’s most beautiful’ snails

Researchers have adopted a mission to save a mission as to what some people consider to be the world’s most beautiful snails, and also unlock their biological secrets.

The endangered polymita tree snails, which are disappearing from their original forest houses in eastern Cuba, have vibrant, colorful and exceptionally patterned shells.

Unfortunately, they are desirable for shells collectors, and conservation experts say the shell trade is pushing the snails to extinct.

Experts at the University of Cuba, and the University of Nottingham in the UK have now worked with the goal of saving six known species of polymita.

The most of them is the endangered polymita sulfrosa, which is the blue flame pattern around its coil and its shell with bright orange and yellow bands with lemon green.

But all polyimita species are striking bright and colorful, which is a evolutionary secret in itself.

Evolutionary genetic and mollusk expert from Nottingham University explained to Professor Angus Davison, “One of the reasons interested in these snails is that they are very beautiful.”

Ironically, he said, that is why snails are so threatened.

“Their beauty attracts those who gather and trade the shells. So a lot of things that make them different and interesting as a scientist, unfortunately, is also endangering them.”

While searching online with Professor Davison, we found several platforms, where the sellers in the UK were offering polymita shells for sale. A collection of seven shells on a site was being advertised for £ 160.

“For some of these species, we know that they are really quite endangered. So it will not take much [if] Someone collects them in Cuba and trades them, causing some species extinct. ,

The shells are purchased and sold as decorative objects, but every empty shell was once a living animal.

While there are international rules for protecting polymita snails, they are difficult to implement. It is illegal – under convention on international trade in endangered species – to take snails or their shells out of Cuba without permits. But selling shells elsewhere is legal.

Professor Davisson says, with pressures such as climate change and forest loss affecting their natural habitat in Cuba, “You can easily imagine that people who collect shells will tip the population in local extinction”.

To try to stop this, Professor Davison is working together at Universidad de Orient, Santiago de Cuba with Professor Bernardo Reyes-Tur, a conservation biologist.

The purpose of this international project is to better understand how snails developed and to provide information which will help in conservation.

Professor Reece-Tur’s effort is probably the most challenging: working with incredible power supply and in a warm climate, he has brought polymita snails into his home for captive reproduction.

“They haven’t breed yet, but they are doing well,” he told us on a video call.

“Although this is challenging – we have blackouts all the time.”

Meanwhile, in well -equipped laboratories at the University of Nottingham, genetic research is being done.

Here, Professor Davisson and his team can place small samples of snail tissue in the cryogenic freezer to preserve them. They are able to use the material to read the genome of animals – the biological set of coded instructions that make up each snail.

The team aims to use the information to confirm how many species are related, how they are related to each other and which part of their genetic code gives them their extraordinary, unique color patterns.

It is expected that they can reveal those biological mysteries before these colorful organisms are purchased and sold in extinction.

“Eastern Cuba is the only place in the world where these snails are found,” Pro Davisson told BBC News.

“This is the place where specialization is – where people know these snails, love and understand them, live and work.

“We hope we can use genetic information that we can bring to contribute to their protection.”