{"id":238190,"date":"2025-10-24T18:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/238190\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T18:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:41:15","slug":"tiny-2mm-rare-snail-found-at-wiltshire-nature-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/238190\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny 2mm rare snail found at Wiltshire nature reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761311511_375_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/c7b549b0-b004-11f0-82b9-4927130e421a.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Wiltshire Wildlife Trust A tiny snail with a brown cone-shaped shell on a blade of grass, being magnified through glass. A small part of someone's hand can been seen holding the blade of the grass on the left, with a painted fingernail in pink and white.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Wiltshire Wildlife Trust<\/p>\n<p>The rare Desmoulin&#8217;s whorl snail was found during fingertip searches<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A wildlife trust has said it is &#8220;excited&#8221; at the discovery of a type of tiny vulnerable snail at one of its nature reserves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Wiltshire Wildlife Trust said it was previously unsure if there were any Desmoulin&#8217;s whorl snails at Smallbrook Meadows in Warminster, but some have been found there for the first time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Volunteers carried out a fingertip search through mud with the aid of magnifying glasses to find the 2mm (0.07ins) creatures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The snail is one of the UK&#8217;s Biodiversity Action Plan Species, making its conservation a high priority, and has caused planning delays previously, nearly <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-40133929\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 iCaRzc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">stopping a bypass in Berkshire.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve been looking for suitable habitat where they aren&#8217;t living to introduce them,&#8221; said Connor Stapleton-Goddard, from the wildlife trust. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;They are quite restricted so they are limited to fenland habitats.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761311511_375_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/6e753c20-b004-11f0-82b9-4927130e421a.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Wiltshire Wildlife Trust A woman sits on a plastic box in amongst lush grass. She is looking downwards at the grass with gloved hands, looking through the blades. She wears a red raincoat and grey trousers.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Wiltshire Wildlife Trust<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers have been carefully doing fingertip searches through nature reserves <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">He said the snails like very wet places in chalk areas &#8211; like those in south Wiltshire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">In the future, the trust wants to set up a captive breeding and release programme where it finds the right habitat for them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Mr Stapleton-Goddard said changes in land use, with lots of river valleys being drained in the past, have led to a reduced population.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;The snails themselves are the base of the food chain. If you&#8217;ve got wetland and fenland supporting these snails then they&#8217;re going to be able support a lot more,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761311511_375_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/9ce95320-b004-11f0-82b9-4927130e421a.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Wiltshire Wildlife Trust A silver key sits on a piece of plastic - in the hole at the top of the key, where a ring would fit through, is a tiny snail with a coned shell. It sits in the middle of the hole and only take sup a small part of it.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Wiltshire Wildlife Trust<\/p>\n<p>It is hoped the snails can be bred and taken to suitable habitats<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The trust said the snails cannot get to other suitable habitats very easily but if they are bred, it can release them in new places.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;We&#8217;re really excited to have found them on our reserves in particular because we haven&#8217;t yet found them anywhere else [in Wiltshire],&#8221; added Mr Stapleton-Goddard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wiltshire Wildlife Trust The rare Desmoulin&#8217;s whorl snail was found during fingertip searches A wildlife trust has said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-238190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}