CHESTER, United Kingdom (AFP) — The greater Bermuda land snail had not been spotted for years until a cluster of shells was caught slithering through an alleyway in the capital Hamilton in 2014.

Some were flown to Chester Zoo, where experts spent years building up the population before they released thousands back into the wild in 2019.

Unique to Bermuda, this type of snail traces its lineage back over a million years — a relic of the island’s ancient ecosystem. 

Now “we can officially say the species is back from the brink”, said Chester Zoo in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The snail “once thought lost has officially been saved from extinction by experts in Chester Zoo, London Zoo and Bermuda,” it said. 

They confirmed this after a study in the Oryx biodiversity conservation journal found that six colonies of the re-wilded snails had settled successfully on the archipelago.

“The fact that the snails are firmly established in six areas is massive,” said Gerardo Garcia, animal and plant director at Chester Zoo.

From specially designed pods in northwest England, they are now breeding and roaming freely in Bermuda, he said.

“Being able to say that the snails are now safe from extinction is amazing ... and something that conservationists might get to say once or maybe twice in their whole career.”

At one point, keeper Katie Kelton said the zoo housed around 60,000 snails. 

It was “a lot of snails to look after ... a lot of chopping lettuce, sweet potato and carrot,” she told AFP.