Snails and elephants

This had us laughing!  In the past, there have been times we have driven through the African bush and encountered an elephant crossing the road.  We've respectfully stopped and kept our distance to let the elephant pass and maybe taken a few photographs.  Exciting and a priviledge to see.  Here's a mighty elephant we saw when we were last back in Zimbabwe, just heading into the bush after crossing the road.

 Although, I must add, our insect loving Sol was far more interested in watching dung beetles doing their thing with elephant dung in the middle of the road, than watching elephants.

Anyway,.. this weekend, driving through the English countryside, Mark spotted a Roman snail crossing the road.   Now, these are not ordinary snails.  These are special, protected Roman snails.  Brought to England by the Romans all those years ago and still here long after the Romans have left.  Much smaller than an elephant but lovely to spot nevertheless!  Well, we quickly pulled over.  I jumped out the car, took a quick picture and moved the snail across the road so it wouldn't get squashed.  Here is that majestic snail.  They are the elephants of the snails in England.  Some can grow to be as big as the palm of your hand.  And they are  protected..Living fossils even!

And while we are on snails, look at this beautiful elephant of a snail.  A giant African snail.  I love how Noah and the snail are making eye contact.

 

Snails

With all the rain we've been having during August, we've been focusing on snails. Just look at some of the beautiful snails. We managed to find six different types of land snails.


The King! Roman snails.


Garden snail.




These are heath snails - their shells are flat and they have a distinct umbilicus.


Brown lipped snails. These can be found with various amounts of stripes.

White lipped snails.

No stripe.

Thick dark stripe.


Multi-striped.


Sinistral snails. Left handed.


Snail eggs.

Snails can be either left handed or right handed and you can tell which by positioning the shell upright with the entrance hole facing towards you.

Snails are considered to be hermaphrodites which means that a snail will have both male and female reproductive organs.

If the snail trail is continuous, then it’s a slug's trail. If there are breaks in the trail, it’s a snail.

Roman Snails!

We have been having quite a bit of rain recently and we have finally spotted roman snails.


This magnificent snail lives in the gardens surrounding the doctor's surgery! We have also spotted a few at the nature reserve. They are magnificent! So big and gorgeous sandy colours, with a distinctive pattern on the shell.

Roman snails were introduced to the British Isles by the Romans during the Roman period (AD 43-410). The Romans brought them here for food, in many parts of Europe (such as France and Italy) it is a gastronomic delicacy. Unfortunately this has lead to over collection and over exploitation of wild populations of this snail. In England, the Roman snail is a protected species, making it illegal to kill, injure, collect or sell them.