Page 38 - Silver Lakes April 2021

NATURE

THE GLOBETROTTING GIANT

AFRICAN LAND SNAIL

By Josh Truter, Photos by Josh Truter, Ken Walker and Timur V. Voronkov

Is it a cute snail on steroids, or a threat to the world environment?

n 1966, a kid from Miami, Florida, brought fulica) hails from East Africa and its natural the sperm can also be stored by the snail
three giant snails home, smuggled in his habitat stretches all the way from the for up to two years before fertilising any
Iluggage all the way from Hawaii. For north-eastern region of Kwazulu-Natal eggs.
whatever reason, he thought they would through Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya
make cool gifts for his grandmother. to Somalia and Ethiopia. It has an average Between 100 and 500 eggs are laid at a
Perhaps Grandma was one of those ‘off the lifespan of 5 – 7 years, although it can live time. The eggs hatch one to three weeks
wall’ kinds of people but this time round longer in ideal conditions. This snail can later and the baby snails reach sexual
she was not impressed with the new pets, grow up to 20cm in length and its shell maturity five to eight months after
so she threw them out into her garden. can extend up to 7cm in height. When it hatching. And that’s how a plague of
Seven years later, the Florida Department is fully grown, its shell will have between Giant African Land Snails can develop in a
of Agriculture estimated there were more 7 and 9 spirals, which are normally dark or relatively short period of time.
than 18 000 of these exotic invasive pests medium brown with stripes at intervals.
in the state, wreaking havoc on crops and The Giant African Land Snail is now
causing damage to buildings. It took them Although classified as hermaphrodites, found on every continent around the
more than a decade to eradicate them, (having both male and female sex organs), globe (except for Antarctica). Apart from
only to see a resurgence in 2011. To date, reproduction requires cross-fertilisation. being smuggled across borders by exotic
they are still fighting the battle to save Mating involves both a ‘getting to know pet traders, it is transported over large
Florida’s agricultural industry from the each other phase’ and copulation, which distances via cargoes of agricultural
plague of snails. normally takes place at night. From a single products and, as it can survive in a
mating, the individual that received the state of aestivation (dormancy to avoid
One of the largest terrestrial gastropods, sperm can produce batches of fertilised excessive heat and dryness) for years, just
the Giant African Land Snail (Achatina eggs over a period of months, although as authorities declare that they have the

36 INTRA MUROS APRIL 2021