Two species of tiny Desertas Islands snails have been bred at the UK’s Chester Zoo and released back into the wild onto one of Portugal’s islands.
Believed to have already disappeared from the planet, a team of experts was surprised to find a small number of the creatures living on a remote island in the Madeira Archipelago.
The species had not been recorded living for more than 100 years.
The tiny snails are native to the mountainous island of Deserta Grande, but their habitat has been destroyed in recent years by rats, mice and goats brought there by humans.
It was believed the entire population of the snails had been eaten by the predators, but conservationists found roughly 200 of the molluscs living on the island.
Working with experts at the UK’s Bristol Zoo and France’s Beauval zoo, staff were able to reproduce around 1,300 of the snails, saving the species from the edge of extinction.
They were brought back to the UK from the islands near Madeira, where experts recreated miniature habitat tanks with the right food and conditions in a converted shipping container.
Before being released back onto the islands, the snails were marked with identification dots so that experts can keep track of them.
They are thought to be the last of their kind on the planet.
