Rare moment caught on camera: Snail lays eggs through its neck in viral video

An extremely rare moment was caught on camera of a snail laying an egg from its neck. The moment was recorded by an employee of New Zealand’s Department of Conservation. The organisation shared a Facebook video showing the fascinating reproduction of the large carnivorous snail, Powelliphanta augusta.

“DOC has been managing this captive population in chilled containers in Hokitika since 2006, when work began to mine the majority of their habitat on the West Coast of the South Island,” DOC wrote, while posting the video.

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“The captive management of Powelliphanta augusta has not only saved the species from extinction, but it’s allowed us to learn more about the lives of these incredible creatures found nowhere else in the world,” it added.

Take a look at the video of a snail laying an egg:

“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. 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,” said DOC Ranger Lisa Flanagan, who also filmed the creature, in a statement.

How do snails mate and lay eggs?

“Powelliphanta have solved this by having an opening (a genital pore) on the right side of their body just below their head so that the snail only needs to peek out of its shell to do the business,” said DOC Senior Science Advisor Kath Walker.

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“It extends its penis out of this pore and into its mate’s pore, and its mate does the same, simultaneously exchanging sperm, which they can store until they each fertilise the sperm they’ve received to create eggs,” Walker continued.

“As hermaphrodites, they have both male and female genitalia, so although they usually mate with another to cross fertilise their eggs, as carnivores which have to live at relatively low density, being able to occasionally self-fertilise must help with survival of the species,” the senior science advisor added.

About the snails at DOC:

Flanagan explained, “Powelliphanta augusta are slow growing and long lived, not being sexually mature until they are about 8 years old and then laying only around 5 big eggs annually which can take more than a year to hatch. Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old – in this 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.”

DOC has also reintroduced new populations of these snails in the wild. They are working to create a sustainable population of the species in the wild.