Why humanity should apologise to snails forced to travel halfway round world

A typical British snail travels up to 25 metres in a 24-hour period. Now, a group of unwittingly intrepid snails bred by conservationists at Edinburgh Zoo are set to be released into the wild in French Polynesia, after making an epic journey that would take their speediest cousins in your garden approximately 600,000 days.

Thankfully the partula snails have help from another species, Homo sapiens, aka us, to ensure they can actually get there. But then, we really do owe them after the snails were nearly driven to extinction in their South Pacific homeland as a result of one of our bright ideas.

Tiny partula snails, marked with reflective paint, are preparing to retake their homeland in French Polynesia (Picture: RZSS) | PA

Back in the 1980s, there was concern that the African giant land snail, accidentally introduced to the islands by us, was taking over. So someone suggested bringing in the rosy wolf snail, a predator, to kill them off. Unfortunately, the rosy wolves chose to eat the native snails instead and almost wiped them out. Oops.

As the partulas embark on their mission to reclaim their islands, we wish them ‘bonne chance’ and, on behalf of humanity, apologise for mucking them about.