Snails are the bane of leafy vegetables and the farmers and gardeners that grow them. Inexorably gnawing away with their tooth covered tongues called radula they can make surprisingly short work of what should have been a nice salad.
Most people consider them to be pests and nothing more than slightly crunchy balls of muck. However, if we take a moment to observe the snail as it quietly traverses a leaf or patch of ground; it becomes a much more charismatic creature.
Slightly timid, leading a simple life going about its own business. Curiously casting about with its simple eyes, mounted on the end of telescoping stalks. It's eyes, seemingly little more than a cluster of light sensitive cells protected by a squishy bulb of flesh, are capable of recognizing movement and light and dark areas and not much else. They rely as much or more on the sense of touch provided by the also extensible tentacles closer to the mouth.
The protective shell of the snail is good armor against many threats such as dehydration and small birds. Crows are quite intelligent and know to drop the snail from height, breaking the shell open. Another threat to the snail are ants. One ant can't do much to a snail, it's simply too large. Dozens or hundreds of ants however will make short work of it.
Snails are quite slow, but if it can slide away far enough before the ant (pictured at the junction of the shell and "neck") gets back to its colony and brings the foraging squad it may get away in time!
This snail was really moving!
The next time you have a chance after the rain has cleared up, I highly recommend taking a moment to watch a snail for a few minutes. It really is quite meditative!
In fact one favourite memory was listening to a Banana Slug eating a leaf on the West Coast of B.C. Canada, they're quite big and close to the slug, you could distinctly hear a small "rip, rip, rip" sound as it ate!
I hope you are enjoying the Little Monsters posts as much as I am writing them!
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Little Monsters - Part I: Wolf Spiders
Little Monsters - Part II: Golden Orb Weaver
Little Monsters - Part III: Lynx Spiders!
Little Monsters - Part IV: Decorator Orb Weaver
Little Monsters - Part V: Black Back Paper Wasp
Little Monsters - Part VI: Dragonfly
Little Monsters - Part VII: Indian Fritallary
Little Monsters - Part VIII: Giant Japanese Hornet
Little Monsters - Part IX: Praying Mantis!
Little Monsters - Part X: Harlequin Ladybird!
Little Monsters - Part XI: Dragons!
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