Choosing my Land Snail and Its Location

Snail Hybrid Location

Snails live in very diverse habitats and there are plenty of them to go around! Snails can be found in a rainforest, a desert, mountains, marshes or your back garden and the list goes on; this is because different snails have adapted to living in these different environments. For example, some snails like a hot and dry climate, whereas others look for a cool and damp climate. It is most common for snails to live where there are humans around. Most snails like a cooler climate, so even if they live somewhere hot, like a desert, they will be most comfortable in the shade and at nighttime; snails also prefer more humid locations then dry ones. Some snails live underground and only come to the surface when it rains so they don't drown; however they only live about 1 inch below the surface so they can get out and move fairly easily.

Snail don't tend to only live in one area, but they slowly move to a new location everyday. They carry their homes on their backs so they can be very flexible with moving; they just need to make sure there is enough of a food source and that it is cool enough for them to be comfortable. Snails are loners and so moving to a new location would be very easy as they like to be by themselves anyway. Snails are almost only seen together when there is a big enough food source to go round; this is also where their mating occurs.

I decided to choose an environment where I wanted my hybrid to live and then choose a snail form that environment. I wanted it to be somewhere where the human hybrid could hide away form society as I think people would be scared of her and possibly try to kill or torture her. The environment also needed to be somewhere where both a human and a snail could survive, by combine their abilities and characteristics. I came up with a rain forest because you can find many fun coloured snails and different shapes and sizes of shell.

Choosing my Snail

Mitchell's Rainforest Snail (Thersites Mitchallae)

ADVOCATE, 2009. Rare find near Lennox. In: Adcocate. 30 July 2009 [7 November 2015].
Available from: http://www.ballinaadvocate.com.au/news/rare-find-near-lennox/283450/

These snails are found along the NSW North Coast of Australia. They are most commonly found either in destroyed rain forests or marshes. They are found amongst leaves on the ground or sometimes under bark where it is cool and damp. These snails are most commonly active at night time and survive off eating leaves, fungi and lichen. These large native land snails often have shells 55mm wide and 50mm high, with a triangle side profile. The foot of the snails are black, often with a lighter coloured line running down its back. The shell colour can vary but is most commonly a mixture of reddish browns, deeper chocolate browns and paler cream/yellows all twisted together towards the point of the shell.

Polymita Picta Snail

BROOKE, C., 2011. A Plethora Of Painted Snails. In: Featured Creature. 3 July 2011 [7 November 2015]. Available from: https://featuredcreature.com/plethora-of-painted-snails/

These snails are found in tropical Cuban rain forests but they are highly endangered because people want their brightly coloured shells and their shells are often sold as Cuban souvenirs. These snails are commonly known as 'painted snails' because of their beautifully bright colours and patterns. They survive on eating lichens and fungi so they are most commonly found on branches of trees of tree trunks. These snails come in all different colours; but the one in the image above has a pure black foot and the shell starts off as red and slowly fades into a bright yellow and then into white.

Partula Nodosa (Polynesian Tree Snail)

HIGGINS, M., 2014. Extinct in the Wild: Polynesian Tree Snail. In: The Whisker Chronicles. 24 June 2014 [7 November 2015]. Available from: http://thewhiskerchronicles.com/2014/06/24/extinct-in-the-wild-polynesian-tree-snail/

These snails are extinct in the wild, but have been reserved by Woodland Park Zoo and other AZA zoos, who are planning on reintroducing them into the wild. They are planned to be released in Tahiti, which is located in the central Southern Pacific ocean in the Windward group that make up the French Polynesia. They became extinct because another predatory snail was introduced and wiped them out. These snails have black antenna and then the foot is a mixture of this black colour and a translucent looking yellow. The shells have a triangular side profile and the cream and orange colours get darker as they reach the point of the shell.


Resources:
SNAIL WORLD, 2014. Facts about Snails [5 November 2015]. Available from: http://www.snail-world.com/
TOUCHSTONE SNAILS, . Polymita Picta - The painted Snails [7 November 2015]. Available from: http://snailbreeding.net/polymita_picta/

ALLIANIC, G., 2014. 3 animals you'd never notice unless they were gone. In: Woodland Park Zoo Blog. 15 December 2014 [7 November 2015]. Available from: http://blog.zoo.org/2014/12/3-animals-youd-never-notice-unless-they.html

ARCHIPELAGO, 2015. The Islands of Tahiti [7 November 2015]. Available from: http://www.tahiti.com/islands