I Found A Monster Snail!!!!!!

[lisalovesbagpuss]

I've just found the largest snail I've ever seen (apart from Giant African Land Snails in a zoo) whilst on a dog walk near my house.
It must be 6 inches long when fully stretched out, and the shell must be about 2 inches long. It's kind of an orangy brown shell and a greyish body. It's quite heavy too, for a snail. Does anyone know what sort of snail this might be, whether it's rare or whether it has escaped (very slowly) from a zoo somewhere!?

[thunder]

Sounds a bit like a Roman Snail - search the net for "Helix pomatia"

henrya

[theanimallover]

you lucky thing, I'd have loved to have stumbled across such a massive snail when walking my dog...shame you didn't get a pic!

does anyone know where it would have come from? is it an escapee?

[thunder]

Look at the distribution map on the NBN Gateway. (National Biodiversity Network Gateway) As I recall, it's thought to be a Roman introduction (hence the common name). It's the species sometimes bred for the table, so escapes or releases occur.

henrya

[Lance Morgan]

It could be an african land snail
Either released or escapee. People buy these then get fed up looking after them and release them.

[demicav]

We get quite a lot of big snails round here, I think they're great.

[Dean Eades]

I would go with the Land Snail, lots of kids have them Has pets


Dean...

[Meles meles]

Agreed not a brilliant pic,

If i remember correctly the snails main body stretched out was slightly smaller than the one you saw.

If it looks like this, then its a roman snail. They are generally always of a big size and in some parts of the country quite common.

Where I was a few weeks ago there was loads of them, but not being an insect person I didnt take too many pics.

Sorry dont have much better



Meles meles

[Trent900]

Sound like a 'Roman' snail. They are apparently protected in this country (even though the species was introduced by the romans) which means no one should pick them up. There is a fairly large colony near where I live.

I'll post a few pictures on here once I figure out how.

D.

[Trent900]

Here's a picture I took a few weeks ago;



D.