UK zoo breeds and releases endangered snail onto Atlantic island

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.

Transcript

00:00Two different species of tiny desertus island land snails have been bred at the UK's Chester

00:07Zoo and released back into the wild in Portugal.

00:12Believed to have already disappeared from the planet, a team of experts was surprised

00:17to find a small number of the creatures living on a remote island in the Madeira archipelago.

00:24Working with experts at the UK's Bristol Zoo and France's Beauval Zoo, staff were able

00:30to reproduce around 1,300 of the snails, saving the species from the edge of extinction.

00:39They were brought back to the UK from the islands near Madeira, where experts recreated

00:44miniature habitat tanks with the right food and conditions in a converted shipping container.

00:52The snails are thought to be the last of their kind on the planet.