In 1991, only 11 of Hawaii's tree snails survived after being hunted by a predator introduced to fight garden pests; after 33 years of lab work, the lost species is finally returning to the wild
- A creature barely three-quarters of an inch long has taken more than three decades of scientific effort to bring back to the forests of Hawaii.
- The O‘ahu tree snail, a species once considered lost in the wild, is slowly getting another chance after conservationists rescued the last 11 known individuals in 1991 and spent years breeding them in captivity.
- The species, Achatinella fuscobasis, returned to its natural habitat in December 2024, but its comeback also highlights a troubling conservation mistake: a predator introduced to control an invasive garden pest became one of the biggest threats
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- A creature barely three-quarters of an inch long has taken more than three decades of scientific effort to bring back to the forests of Hawaii.
- The O‘ahu tree snail, a species once considered lost in the wild, is slowly getting another chance after conservationists rescued the last 11 known individuals in 1991 and spent years breeding them in captivity.
- The species, Achatinella fuscobasis, returned to its natural habitat in December 2024, but its comeback also highlights a troubling conservation mistake: a predator introduced to control an invasive garden pest became one of the biggest threats
Sources: Times of India