75. The Edible Snail

To have EDIBLE as part of your name is most unfortunate for an animal, and the Edible Snail (M: Ghakrux Ragel) is one such unfortunate. After rain, armies of searchers invade the coutryside to collect this snail by the bagful, their sole intention being of turning this gastropod into gastronomy. Thankfully, the Edible Snail is (still) very common, and this also despite a pesticide war waged against it for daring to eat our crops. The snails we see in our countryside are an exception to the rule of this animal group, the molluscs. Most of the 100,000 species known on the planet are aquatic, and very few live on land, and the ones that live ashore still need a damp habitat. Incidentally, the RAGEL in the Maltese name is a misnomer: snails are hermaphrodite!

Text by Victor Falzon, photo by Guido Bonett.

Copyright to Birdlife Malta.