Original version

BBC World Service South Asia

Discovery

Documentaries

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Discovery: SOS Snail

Magazines & Reviews

SOS Snail

16/10/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Discovery, SOS SnailSearch BBC

Helen Scales reports on the international rescue mission to save the Partula snail

Partula tree snails are the size of a human thumbnail, but these icons of evolution have been driven to extinction in their French Polynesian homeland.

This is a big story about a little snail. Biologist Helen Scales relates an epic tale that spans the globe and involves calamity, tragedy, extinction and we hope, salvation. It stars the tiny tree-dwelling mollusc from French Polynesia, Partula, a snail that has captivated scientists for centuries. Like Charles Darwin studied finches on the Galapagos, Partula became an icon of evolution because, in the living laboratories of the Pacific islands, it had evolved into multiple species. But a calamity drove Partula to extinction, when a botched biological control, the predatory Rosy Wolf Snail, was introduced. It was supposed to eat another problem mollusc, but in a cruel twist, devoured tiny Partula instead. An international rescue mission was scrambled to save a species and from just one or two rescued individuals, populations of this snail species have been built up over thirty years in captive breeding programmes in zoos around the world. And now, in the nailbiting sequel, we track Partula’s journey home.

Picture: Reintroduced Partula dispersing on Moorea in French Polynesia, Credit: ZSL

Presenter: Helen Scales
Producer: Fiona Hill

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Discovery

SOS Snail

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service South Asia

About BBC World Service