Major milestone for conservation of the rare pond mud snail - Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS)
After a mammoth five-year search, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS)’s conservation breeding programme to boost numbers of the rare pond mud snail has reached a major milestone. Five of the tiny snails were found last month during routine monitoring by the RZSS conservation and keeping teams within the Pentland Hills, southwest of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The discovery comes after the wildlife conservation charity conducted a release of more than 80 pond mud snails – a fingernail-sized freshwater snail which lives in ponds, marshes and ditches – at the Red Moss reserve site in the Pentlands in 2018.
Formerly a widespread presence in Britain, pond mud snails are now limited to only a handful of sites across Scotland, England and Wales. The species is typically found in very clean water and survives on a diet of algae and decaying plants and their decline across Britain over the years is a result of habitat loss and pollution.
Dr Helen Taylor, Conservation Programme Manager at RZSS, said, “It was so exciting to finally find these wee guys at the release site in Red Moss – it is a hugely encouraging sign that pond mud snails from our original release in 2018 have survived. Although we have looked for signs of their survival over the years, we have not previously found any and could not be sure whether the release had been successful or not… until now! This finding also highlights the importance of RZSS’s long-term commitment to the reintroduction projects that we do – it can take years (literally) to establish whether a reintroduction effort is working and that’s why it’s so key that we establish long-term post-release monitoring programs such as these.”
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Posted On: 14/04/2023