Rare Animals - Tumblr Posts
Day 48 of posting cute creatures we found on our field trip:
Today’s creature is so rare and understudied that it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia article:
Meet Dinarica pouzolzii the rarest terrestrial snail in Europe. It’s native only to western Balkans and only in regions where soil is very rich in calcium. It likes to hang out near caves. And that’s all we know about it.
But we found this one a friend!
And the second we put them on the ground…
They began kissing!
This is how snails start their mating ritual. We accidentally found snailmates (snail soulmates) of the rarest snail species in the region. Imagine the joy!
Day 50 of posting cute creatures we found on our field trip:
Helix vladika is the largest European terrestrial snail. This snail lives only in a small region between Serbia, Montenegro and Albania. The populations are stable in Serbia and Montenegro and vulnerable in Albania, but that’s mostly likely because of the very small region they inhabit.
This snail looks like giant Roman snail except for the dark coloration of its body. However it is a distinct species and cannot hybridize with common Roman snail (Helix pommatia).
These snails are very friendly and playful, but they also like to bite. This one we caught was a total sweetheart. He looks very old. He might be in his twenties as far as we know.
Vladika is a title that Montenegrin rulers used to have until mid twentieth century. It’s a title only below king. The snail was named as such because it’s native to Montenegro and its imposing size makes it “the vladika of snails”. It is protected by law, which helped the populations growth tremendously, since they were often collected for food. They reproduce very slowly and need up to three years to reach sexual maturity, so overcollecting is devastating for their populations.
