Snail extinctionIn 1996, the last individual of the snail species Partula turgida (the Polynesian Tree Snail) died at the London Zoo. A protozoan disease of the digestive gland was believed responsible for the extinction of this last specimen. Numerous field surveys failed to find extant populations of this species in the wild (the South Pacific island of Raiatea in the Society Island chain, about 5000-km south of Hawaii). Raiatea residents began importing predatory snails from Florida in 1986 to eat a different pest snail, but the predators attacked the native snails. By 1991 they had driven the species to the brink of extinction. Scientists captured the last known P. turgida individuals to try to save them through captive breeding.«[Image: Polynesian tree snail of a different species in the Partula genus, shown on a test tube for scale] |
