Rare Snail Has a 1-in-40,000 Chance of Finding a Mate. New Zealand Begins the Search (cnn.com)
- Reference: 0178940454
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/30/054244/rare-snail-has-a-1-in-40000-chance-of-finding-a-mate-new-zealand-begins-the-search
- Source link: https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/28/world/new-zealand-snail-lonely-love-intl-hnk
> Ned's shell spirals left, while almost all other snails have right spiraling shells. It's a one in 40,000 genetic condition among the common corno espersum... "I was quite breathless for a moment," says Giselle Clarkson, an author, illustrator and self-described 'observologist' who found Ned while digging in her garden in Wairarapa, just north of capital Wellington. "I was just pulling out this plant, and a snail tumbled into the dirt and I was just about to scoop it up and just chuck it off to the side, when I realized what I had," Clarkson told CNN. It was a serendipitous moment for Ned, now named for Homer Simpson's left-handed neighbor. Clarkson was aware of this rare asymmetry in snails from her work with the magazine New Zealand Geographic .
But "should Ned hope to mate one day, it will have to be with another very rare left-coiled snail," [2]notes the Washington Post (since, as CNN points out, this snail's reproductive organs "don't line up" with those of snails with right-spiraling shells). This has sparked a national campaign to locate a compatible snail — something that was [3]last successfully attempted in 2016 .
"If 40,000 people read this," [4]the campaign explains , "chances are, Ned's dreams will come true."
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/28/world/new-zealand-snail-lonely-love-intl-hnk
[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/ned-the-lefty-snail-has-a-1-in-40000-shot-at-a-mate-cue-a-national-search/ar-AA1Lpzxt
[3] https://www.yahoo.com/news/love-last-rare-lefty-snail-170000304.html
[4] https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/lets-find-a-mate-for-ned/
So what's the plan here? (Score:3)
Are they hoping to breed an entire sinister species?
Under natural conditions, this mutation dies out immediately.
Humans have always helped along lots of weird mutations, but usually there's something in it for us.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I'm not quite getting the effort here. It's not an endangered species, it's a one off mutation that is an evolutionary dead end due to it creating problems for reproduction.
Maybe the experience of eating escargot is enhanced by having some snails who's shell twists the other way?
Re: (Score:2)
> evolutionary dead end due to it creating problems for reproduction.
I did not read that. The problem is only that the left-spiral and the right-spiral aren't compatible. But if we find a few of them and breed them, we can create a new species left-spiralling. (Whether we should is a separate question.)
This is as funny as a Sidehill gouger in the American folklore, or a Dahu in the French Alps ( [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ). These are folk creatures with two legs shorter than the other two, optimized to spiral around mountains. There are therefore two sets of them, le
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahu
Re: (Score:3)
> But if we find a few of them and breed them, we can create a new species left-spiralling. (Whether we should is a separate question.)
What could possibly go wrong in Australia with animal breeding? I mean, they did fine with bunnies and toads, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong continent, mate.
Kiwiland. You know, where the hobbits went extinct.
Re: (Score:3)
> I did not read that.
Mutations that lead to major problems breeding (which 1 out of 40k odds of find a mate are) are usually evolutionary dead ends unless they're enhancing something else that is so advantageous that it overcomes the breeding problem.
Doesn't sound so rare (Score:2)
So how could they estimate the rarity? Unlikely to mate the same type in captivity, but obviously quite possible in the wild. Hence, Ned.
How do you get snails to use a dating app? (Score:4, Funny)
That seems like the first question we need to answer.
Re: (Score:2)
They can select snails they like by licking them, at a snail's pace.
Are dating apps used for procreation?
What about animal rights? (Score:3)
Did the snail ask them for this?
Still better than... (Score:2)
1-in-40,000 is still better than the chance for the average Slashdot reader!
Re: Still better than... (Score:2)
Shame it's FAR worse than what their parents had.....should've been the other way 'round
Oh (Score:1)
Still better odds than me. :sadface
Re: (Score:2)
> Still better odds than me. :sadface
Why? Do you spiral left too? /s