Snails are very interesting creatures and we will show you How To Find Snails In The Forest At Zatrnik, on the road from Zgornje Gorje to Pokljuka, where we have observed them daily.
We have observed many snails in this locality. We have noticed that there are many different types of snails, for example, slugs are a related species that is different to Snails. Slugs do not have shells and they move very quickly, compared to snails. We will study this species separately. This post is about Snails.
There are over 100 different species of snails around the world, and they vary in size from very tiny ones, to those that are quite large, like the size of a small mammal.
What Are Snails?
Snails are invertebrates that live in the forest, and throughout the countryside in most of Europe, and in many countries throughout the world.
Snails can be found on leaves, logs, and rocks everywhere in the forest.
The Land Snail has a shell that is made of calcium carbonate with two large spiral-shaped shells called “whorls”. You can see the spiral-shaped shells or whorls in the photographs and videos that we display here for your information
Snail eggs are laid in clutches under stones or logs.
There is not much known about snails because they are usually small creatures and hard to study, especially their habits day and night and from season to season.
Snails have been around for over 500 million years! That is a lot longer than humans!
Snails have a shell and move slowly, but can still be seen by humans.
The snails’ diet is mostly fungi and plants. Snails also eat dead animals like insects or other worms.
Snails are very slow-moving creatures that don’t have any eyes or ears, they have antennae with which they feel their surroundings.
The shell of a snail protects it from predators and helps keep moisture inside its body.
Some people eat snails as food – they’re high in protein and low in fat. In France snails are a delicacy and are usually prepared by boiling them and serving them with butter. These dishes are popular in many countries in the world
The snail’s head is usually at one end of its body, with its mouth facing towards it; this makes it easy for them to eat food and then bring up what they don’t need from their stomachs through their mouths again. known as regurgitation of food.
Snail slime helps protect them from drying out because it contains mucus which helps keep moisture inside the slug’s body so that they don’t dry out when exposed to air.
You can often see a silvery trail of slime left on the ground or on the surface where a snail has passed by .
We are observing the snails that we have found at Zatrnik, and will inform you further about the snails habits, and way of life. By all means if you have particular questions about snails and their habits then drop us a line and ask the question. We will do our best to find out the answer to your question.
Snails are prey for many forest creatures, such as birds or foxes, as they make a meal for a small mammal or animal.
We hope to find out much more about the life of snails by observing them daily, and over prolonged periods of time, throughout the seasons of the year.
There is a lot more to know about snails as well as the simple facts above and we will recount a few other less well known facts below (the source is Wikipedia):
Snails that respire using a lung belong to the group Pulmonata. As traditionally defined, the Pulmonata were found to be polyphyletic in a molecular study per Jörger et al., dating from 2010. But snails with gills also form a polyphyletic group; in other words, snails with lungs and snails with gills form a number of taxonomic groups that are not necessarily more closely related to each other than they are related to some other groups – wow what amazing facts you can find in Wikipedia!
Both snails that have lungs and snails that have gills have diversified so widely over geological time that a few species with gills can be found on land and numerous species with lungs can be found in freshwater. Even a few marine species have lungs. I never knew that some snails had gills!
Snails can be found in a very wide range of environments, including ditches, deserts, and the abyssal depths of the sea. Although land snails may be more familiar to laymen, marine snails constitute the majority of snail species and have much greater diversity and a greater biomass. Numerous kinds of snail can also be found in freshwater. The subject of snails is quite mindboggling, I never realised that there was so much that I did not know about them.
Many snails have thousands of microscopic tooth-like structures located on a banded ribbon-like tongue called a radula. The radula works like a file, ripping food into small pieces. Many snails are herbivorous, eating plants or rasping algae from surfaces with their radulae, though a few land species and many marine species are omnivores or predatory carnivores. Snails cannot absorb coloured pigments when eating paper or cardboard so their faeces are also coloured. It sounds like something from a horror movie – I hope that snails do not grow to gigantic size!
Several species of the genus Achatina and related genera are known as giant African land snails; some grow to 15 in (38 cm) from snout to tail, and weigh 1 kg (2 lb). I am scared already!
The largest known living species of sea snail is Syrinx aruanus; its shell can measure up to 90 cm (35 in) in length, and the whole animal with the shell can weigh up to 18 kg (40 lb). That´s incredible, I hope they do not move quickly!
Recently, the smallest land snails, Angustopila dominikae, have been discovered in China, and measure only 0.86mm long. That´s not at all frightening, I just hope I do not stand on any and crush them!
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Snail moving on a wet ground, quite a normal scene.
Snail moving across leaves, also normal and unthreatening.
The snail Lymnaea makes decisions by using only two types of neurons: one deciding whether the snail is hungry, and the other deciding whether there is food in the vicinity. Wow an intelligent creature!
The largest known land gastropod is the African giant snail Achatina achatina, the largest recorded specimen of which measured 39.3 centimetres (15.5 in) from snout to tail when fully extended, with a shell length of 27.3 cm (10.7 in) in December 1978. It weighed exactly 900 g (2 lb). Named Gee Geronimo, this snail was owned by Christopher Hudson (1955–79) of Hove, East Sussex, UK, and was collected in Sierra Leone in June 1976. I never realised this until I read it here, lifechanging information!
Diet
Snails usually feed at night and primarily on decaying organic matter. The diet of snails also includes fungi, lichens, green foliage, worms, centipedes, insects, animal faeces, carrion, and other slugs. Some snails feed on other snails too. I think that is just too much information for me!
Types of snails by habitat
Main articles: Land snail, Freshwater snail, and Sea snail
Cornu aspersum – garden snail
In agriculture
There are a variety of snail-control measures that gardeners and farmers use in an attempt to reduce damage to valuable plants. Traditional pesticides are still used, as are many less toxic control options such as concentrated garlic or wormwood solutions. Copper metal is also a snail repellent, and thus a copper band around the trunk of a tree will prevent snails from climbing up and reaching the foliage and fruit. A layer of a dry, finely ground, and scratchy substance such as diatomaceous earth can also deter snails. More information that I was unaware of, how ignorant am I?
The decollate snail (Rumina decollata) will capture and eat garden snails, and because of this it has sometimes been introduced as a biological pest control agent. However, this is not without problems, as the decollate snail is just as likely to attack and devour other gastropods that may represent a valuable part of the native fauna of the region. It sounds horrific, the stuff of nightmares!
Snails As Food (If you are squeamish, no need to read further)
Main article: Heliciculture
French cooked snails
In France, edible snails are served for instance in Escargot à la Bourguignonne, which is extremely popular. The practise of rearing snails for food is known as heliciculture. For purposes of cultivation, the snails are kept in a dark place in a wired cage with dry straw or dry wood. Coppiced wine-grape vines are or may be used for this purpose. During the rainy period, the snails come out of hibernation and release most of their mucus onto the dry wood/straw. The snails are then prepared for cooking. Their texture when cooked is slightly chewy and tender, so not dissimilar to chicken but not as textured.
In addition to being enjoyed as a gourmet food, several species of land snails can provide an easily harvested source of protein to many people in poor communities around the world. Many land snails are valuable because they can feed on a wide range of agricultural wastes, for example the shed leaves in banana plantations. In some countries of the world, giant African land snails are produced commercially for food.
Land snails, freshwater snails and sea snails are all eaten in many countries of the world. In certain parts of the world, snails are fried as for example, in Indonesia, they are fried as satay, a dish known as sate kakul. The eggs of certain snail species are eaten in a fashion similar to the way caviar is eaten.
In Bulgaria, snails are traditionally cooked in an oven with rice or fried in a pan with vegetable oil and red paprika powder. Before they are used for those dishes, however, they are thoroughly boiled in hot water and manually extracted from their shells. The two species most commonly used for food in the country are Helix lucorum and Helix pomatia.
Famine food
Snails and slug species that are not normally eaten in certain areas have occasionally been used as famine food in historical times. A history of Scotland written in the 1800s recounts a description of various snails and their use as food items in times of plague. Well if you were desperate. I suppose you might?…
Parasitic diseases
Snails have also been associated with the transmission of parasitic diseases such as schistosomiasis, angiostrongyliasis, fasciolopsiasis, opisthorchiasis, fascioliasis, paragonimiasis and clonorchiasis, all of which can be transmitted to humans. Now I am really worried, better kill them all!
I am not so sure now that I want to find out How To Find Snails In The Forest At Zatrnik.