Latest news with #Powelliphanta
RNZ News
6 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
DOC spends hundreds of thousands to care for snails after mining destroys home
Powelliphanta augusta snails and eggs. Photo: Lisa Flanagan/DOC Two thousand giant snails are living in fridges on the West Coast as an insurance policy for the Department of Conservation, which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their care and restoring their environment-turned-coal mine. The Department of Conservation (DOC) has managed this captive population of Powelliphanta augusta since 2006, when the former state mining company Solid Energy took over their habitat on the Mt Augustus ridgeline on the western side of the Stockton Plateau, near Westport. Solid Energy collapsed in 2015 , after falling coal prices left it unable to pay almost $400 million of debt. Bathurst Resources now owns the mine, and the captive population of snails in DOC's care is now just under 2000, kept in containers with leaf matter in a temperature-controlled room in Hokitika. An Official Information Act request submitted by the Taxpayers' Union shows DOC has spent more than $411,000 in the past four years on their housing and management, including staff costs. But the Taxpayers' Union's investigations coordinator Rhys Hurley said this was a poor use of public money, and the scheme "shows the ridiculousness of the system". "It drains DOC funding away from other species, is unaccountable and offers little evidence of success," he said. The Department of Conservation (DOC) has managed this captive population of Powelliphanta augusta since 2006. Photo: Lucy Holyoake/DOC But DOC's principal advisor for biodiversity Hilary Aikman said those costs were "really reasonable", and on-par with what the department would spend on any other critically endangered species. She had just returned from a "very wet but fascinating trip" to Stockton this past week. "The idea is that [the captive snails] provide us with an insurance population while we understand how they've adapted to the areas where they were released that were away from their original habitat," Aikman said. The snails' original habitat had measured only 10 hectares, almost all of which had been converted into the mine. The bits no longer in use were now being revegetated, with plants being brought in from nearby areas to try and recreate a habitat for these snails to be released into. Some snails had survived in the wild and lived on around the mine, but up to 10,000 snails and eggs had been reintroduced to those areas from the captive population. It was a slow process, Aikman said, as the species was slow to mature - some in captivity had reached up to 30-years-old. "We are being somewhat cautious, making sure that they're surviving before we let more out of captivity, but that is because they're critically endangered, they're as rare as the kākāpō, and they're unique to New Zealand." Aikman said one of the benefits to having a captive population was the opportunity to learn more about the species. Most of the revegetation work was being undertaken by Bathurst, who now ran the mine. Photo: Lucy Holyoake/DOC Last month, DOC ranger Lisa Flanagan, who had been looking after the snails in Hokitika for more than 12 years, filmed an egg being laid - something that never would have captured in the wild. Not all of the cost of the species' survival had been shouldered by DOC. "The majority of the money to keep the captive population going came as part of the permitting permissions for Solid Energy when they were first set up," Aikman said. "That was part of the agreement - if you remove the habitat, this is what we need to do." And most of the revegetation work was being undertaken by Bathurst, which now ran the mine. "We feel that the costs we are spending on them, and we've spent a little bit more recently on supplementing some of the planting to help with the restoration, but we feel that those costs are really reasonable for a critically endangered species, and are quite in-line with what we spend on other critically endangered species." She said they had begun to limit the breeding of snails for which they already had plenty of genetic material, but allowing others with rarer traits to continue, to increase the diversity of the population. According to the OIA, in 2023/24, $85,000 had been spent on a population genetics study to reveal the existing level of diversity. Aikman said the goal was to release most, if not all of the snails over the next five years. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
This Giant Snail Lays Eggs Out of Its Neck… Yes, Seriously
If you thought human birth was seriously twisted, get a load of the Mount Augustus snail from New Zealand. This giant carnivorous gastropod pushes 5-millimeter-wide eggs out of a pore just below its head. The pain-in-the-neck form of reproduction was recently caught on camera by Lisa Flanagan, a ranger at NZ's Department of Conservation (DOC), who has been caring for a captive population of these snails (Powelliphanta augusta) since 2006. "It's remarkable that in all the time we've spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we've seen one lay an egg," says Flanagan. "We caught the action when we were weighing the snail. We turned it over to be weighed and saw the egg just starting to emerge from the snail." Powelliphanta are among the largest snails in the world, and they comb through NZ's forest and grasslands slurping up earthworms like spaghetti. P. augusta is one of the more famous species (nearly 10 centimeters in length), and it was only discovered by the DOC in 2005, when most of the snail's habitat was subject to mining. The wild population is now confined to just a few introduced sites, where the snail hasn't lived historically, but a captive colony exists of roughly 2,000 individuals as a genetic insurance policy. These are some of the longest-living snails in the world – some of the captive snails under Flanagan's care are between 25 and 30 years old. "I just love watching their progress each month, weighing them, how their shells develop, and all the interesting things they do," says Flanagan. While they usually lay around five eggs per year, starting from about the age of eight, this is the first time scientists in New Zealand have seen the egg-laying in action. The species is a hermaphrodite, meaning each individual has male and female genitalia. To mate, each snail pushes out a penis from its neck pore and pokes it into the pore of the other snail. Both individuals exchange sperm and then store it for later fertilization. It is from this same neck pore that a fertilized egg later emerges. Talk about evolutionary efficiency. Cephalopods Passed a Cognitive Test Designed For Human Children Study Reveals How Your Cat Remembers Who You Are 'Lost City' Deep Beneath The Ocean Is Unlike Anything We've Seen Before on Earth
The Star
23-05-2025
- Science
- The Star
Footage of rare snail laying an egg from its neck captured for the first time
A Powelliphanta augusta snail laying an egg from its neck at the Hokitika nnail housing facility. — LISA FLANAGAN/New Zealand Department of Conservation/AP The strange reproductive habits of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail were once shrouded in mystery. Now footage of the snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured for the first time, the country's conservation agency said. What looks like a tiny hen's egg is seen emerging from an opening below the head of the Powelliphanta augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand. The video was taken at a facility on the South Island's West Coast, where conservation rangers attempting to save the species from extinction have cared for a population of the snails in chilled containers for nearly two decades. The conditions in the containers mimic the alpine weather in their only former habitat – a remote mountain they were named for, on the west coast of the South Island, that has been engulfed by mining. Lisa Flanagan from the Department of Conservation, who has worked with the creatures for 12 years, said the species still holds surprises. 'It's remarkable that in all the time we've spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we've seen one lay an egg,' she said in a statement. Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites, which explains how the creatures can reproduce when encased in a hard shell. The invertebrate uses a genital pore on the right side of its body, just below the head, to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg. Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which it lays about five eggs a year. The egg can take more than a year to hatch. 'Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old,' said Flanagan. 'They're polar opposites to the pest garden snail we introduced to New Zealand, which is like a weed, with thousands of offspring each year and a short life.' The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings where they are threatened by habitat loss. They are carnivores that slurp up earthworms like noodles, and are some of the world's largest snails, with oversized, distinctive shells in a range of rich earth colours and swirling patterns. The Powelliphanta augusta was the centre of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when an energy company's plans to mine for coal threatened to destroy the snails' habitat. Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn't adapt well to new habitats. In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control. But the species' slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said. – AP
CBC
16-05-2025
- Science
- CBC
N.Z. carnivorous snail filmed for 1st time laying an egg from its neck
Lisa Flanagan, a ranger at New Zealand's Department of Conservation, filmed the moment the Powelliphanta augusta snail laid its egg from the genital pore in the side of its neck. (Credit: New Zealand Department of Conservation)
Yomiuri Shimbun
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Rare N.Z. Snail Filmed for 1st Time Laying Egg from Its Neck
Lisa Flanagan / New Zealand Department of Conservation via AP A Powelliphanta augusta snail lays an egg from its neck at the Hokitika Snail Housing facility in Hokitika, New Zealand, in September 2024. WELLINGTON (AP) — The strange reproductive habits of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail were once shrouded in mystery. Now footage of the snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured for the first time, the country's conservation agency said on May 7. What looks like a tiny hen's egg is seen emerging from an opening below the head of the Powelliphanta augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand. The video was taken at a facility on the South Island's West Coast, where conservation rangers attempting to save the species from extinction have cared for a population of the snails in chilled containers for nearly two decades. The conditions in the containers mimic the alpine weather in their only former habitat — a remote mountain they were named for, on the West Coast of the South Island, that has been engulfed by mining. Observing their habits Lisa Flanagan from the Department of Conservation, who has worked with the creatures for 12 years, said the species still holds surprises. 'It's remarkable that in all the time we've spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we've seen one lay an egg,' she said in a statement. Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites, which explains how the creatures can reproduce when encased in a hard shell. The invertebrate uses a genital pore on the right side of its body, just below the head, to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg. Long but slow reproductive life Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which it lays about five eggs a year. The egg can take more than a year to hatch. 'Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old,' said Flanagan. 'They're polar opposites to the pest garden snail we introduced to New Zealand, which is like a weed, with thousands of offspring each year and a short life.' The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings where they are threatened by habitat loss. They are carnivores that slurp up earthworms like noodles, and are some of the world's largest snails, with oversized, distinctive shells in a range of rich earth colors and swirling patterns. Political storm The Powelliphanta augusta was at the center of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when an energy company's plans to mine for coal threatened to destroy the snails' habitat. Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn't adapt well to new habitats. In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control. But the species' slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said.
