WELLINGTON, New Zealand: 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 Wednesday.
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.
Observing their habits
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.
A long but slow reproductive life
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 colors and swirling patterns.
A political storm
The Powelliphanta augusta was the center 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.

DAMASCUS: At Basel al-Sati's souvenir shop in a central Damascus market, socks bearing caricatures that ridicule ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and his once feared family now sell like hot cakes.
"I want to bring joy to people who've been deprived of happiness for so many days and years," said Sati, 31, displaying pairs of white ankle-length socks.
"Everyone who comes from abroad wants to buy the socks -- some to keep as a souvenir, others to wear mockingly and take pictures," he told AFP.
"There are even some who buy them just to stomp on them," he said.
Stamping on someone's image is considered deeply insulting in the Arab world, so the socks allow wearers to trample the Assads underfoot as they walk.
Pictures of the Assad clan have gone from being ubiquitous symbols of repression to objects of derision and mockery since his December 8 ouster by Islamist-led forces after nearly 14 years of devastating civil war.
Some socks showing Assad in sunglasses read "We will trample them", while others depict him with heavily exaggerated features.
Others bear a caricature of Hafez al-Assad who ruled Syria before his son, depicted in his underwear and chest puffed out.
They bear the phrase "This is what the Assads look like" -- a play on the family's last name, which means lion.
Assad's once feared younger brother Maher labelled "the captagon king" also features. Western governments accused Maher and his entourage of turning Syria into a narco state, flooding the Middle East with the illegal stimulant.


Sati's shop, brimming with other gift items, is decorated with images from Syria's revolution.
An image of Assad is on the ground at the entrance so people can walk on it.
"It's another kind of celebration, for all the Syrians who couldn't celebrate in Ummayad Square after the fall of the regime," Sati said.
The Damascus landmark filled with huge crowds from across the country and hosted days of celebrations after Assad's ouster, with people raising the now official three-starred flag symbolising the revolution.
Afaf Sbano, 40, who returned after fleeing to Germany a decade ago, said she had come to buy "Assad socks", which sell for around a dollar a pair, for friends.
There is "no better" gift for those "who can't come to Syria to celebrate the fall of the regime", she told AFP.
"I bought more than 10 extra pairs for my friends after I shared a photo on Instagram," she said.
"We had never dared to even imagine making fun of him" before, she added.


Manufacturer Zeyad Zaawit, 29, said the idea of socks to mock the Assads came to him after the former ruler was deposed and fled to Russia.
Zaawit started with a small number and then ramped up production when he saw they were selling fast.
"People hate him," Zaawit said of Assad.
"I took revenge on him this way after he fled," he said, adding that the socks were so popular that some customers even paid in advance.
Zaawit said he produced around 1,000 pairs in the first week and has since tripled production, making more than 200,000 pairs in three months.
Images of the socks have been shared widely on social media and they have even been used in satirical television programmes.
Assad's own words have also been turned against him -- including a refusal to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a foe who is close to Syria's new authorities.
Erdogan made repeated overtures to Assad in the period before his overthrow.
In August 2023, Assad famously said: "Why should I meet Erdogan? To drink refreshments?"
The pronouncement, now the subject of jokes on social media, appears on posters in food and juice stalls, sometimes accompanied by mocking images of Assad.