More than 1,300 endangered tiny snails have been released to roam an island off the coast of Morocco after a breeding program saved two obscure species from the brink of extinction.
The Desertas Island land snails had not been recorded for more than 100 years and were believed to have disappeared from their natural habitat in the mountains of Deserta Grande Island, near Madeira, Portugal.
Experts at the Instituto das Florestas e Conservação da Natureza (IFCN) rediscovered minute populations of two snail species, each with fewer than 200 survivors, in conservation missions between 2012 and 2017, amid fears that invasive predators could eat the oblivioncs.
