Amazing snails


Introducing the snail

Land snails, like me, live wherever there are plants - in fact without plants we couldn't survive as they give us food, shelter and air.  

We live in gardens, fields, woodlands, and towns.


Meet my relatives

I'm a kind of mollusc and I have a lot of relatives that live on land, in fresh water or in the sea. 

We all have a soft body and some of us have a hard shell like me. We don't have any skeleton inside and are a part of a huge group called invertebrates who make up 97%  of the animals on Earth.

Which of these creatures is a mollusc?

I am a black slug.

I am a whelk and I live in the sea.

I am a woodlouse and am related to lobsters and crabs.

I am a sea slug.

I am an octopus.

I am a caterpillar and I turn into a butterfly or moth.



Answers:

Yes I am a mollusc! I am a black slug.

Yes I am a mollusc! I am a whelk and I live in the sea.

No I am not a mollusc, but I am an inverterate! I am a woodlouse and am related to lobsters and crabs.

Yes I am a mollusc! I am a sea slug.

Yes I am a mollusc! I am an octopus.

No I am not a mollusc, but I am an invertebrate! I am a caterpillar and I turn into a butterfly or moth.


Snail parts (anatomy)


1. Slime trail

I leave a trail of slime wherever I go. Other snails use it like a 'snail motorway'


2. Body

Exploring Invertebrates - How do Snails Move?

My body moves in a shape like a wave as my muscles stretch and tighten. I don't have any ears, but I can sense vibrations with my skin.


3. Shell

My camouflaged hard shell protects me from predators (Things tht might want to eat me). I can hide inside in hot, cold or dry weather.


4. Mouth

My mouth is underneath my body. I have rows of tiny teeth to scrape my food. I eat live or dead plants, fruit, bark or fungi. I eat soil or sand to get calcium for a healthy shell. People need calcium to make strong bones.


5. Tentacles

I have four tentacles which I can make long or short. My top two have an eye on the end whcich can sense light and dark. I usually come out at night. I smell things with my lower two tentacles.


Snail life cycle

My life story

I can live for 1 year or 3 if I am lucky. 

I spend my life in the slow lane happily staying in the place I was born. I can remember exactly where the things are that I need to stay healthy and enjoy the company of other snails.


Step 1. Eggs

My parents lay up to 100 eggs under the soil.


Step 2. Baby snail

I hatch out of an egg 3-4 weeks later as a tiny snail. 

My shell is soft and I need to eat calcium from soil or plants to make it hard.


Step 3. Growing up

As I get older I make my shell bigger and add new rings to my spiral shape. 

The middle of the big adult shell was my original baby shell!


Step 4. Fully grown

Once I am an adult, my shell stops growing and gets a thick outer lip. Now it's time to find another snail to make eggs of my own.

So the cycle begins again.


My life story

Life goes slow at a snail's pace but I have everything I need to grow as long as I stay safe and there are plants to eat. 

The circle of life is complete.

A year in the life of a snail

Snail survival

Snails are born survivors from the armour they wear on their back to their camouflage but they can only move slowly (1 metre per hour) so their best defence is to hide from danger. 

They are eaten by other creatures and need to survive the challenges of each season. 

Let's take a look at how they do this. 


Snails in Spring

I hibernate over winter and stay in my shelter in spring until the frost is over. I come out of my closed up shell to eat young plants. 

Look out for me after rain - it's my favourite weather as my body can easily dry out!


Snails in summer

I have a feast on summer plants. I love to eat your lettuces! I come out at night when the sun can't dry me out. 

I lay see-through eggs under stones and logs and my babies look like tiny snails! 


Snails in autumn

In autumn I love to eat fallen fruit, like apples and berries, and I tidy up by eating dying plants and fungi.  You might find me hiding under piles of damp leaves. 



Snails in winter

In winter I hibernate is so that ice crystals don't form in my soft body. 

I stick myself under a stone or into another hidey hole and seal up my shell with a door of hard slime.


A snail's place in nature

Everything in the garden is connected - we can call this 'the web of life'. 

If one plant or creature disappears, everything else is affected. Snails are just as important as everything else.


Snails help by...

...Cleaning up - they eat dead plant material and fungi.

Putting nutrients back into the soil when they poo. Nutrients in soil help plants grow better.

Providing food for other creatures higher in the food chain.


Who eats who? 

A food chain shows who eats who in the garden. 

All living creatures need energy to live and they get this by eating food.

Every creature, including us, needs plants to survive because plants are different - they can make their own food! 

Plants make food in their green cells using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide in air

Garden snails mainly eat plants - living or dead

A thrush eats a snail by breaking its shell on a stone


Snail quiz

Can you help Marley the cat find the answers to this Snail quiz?


Can you match the snail part to what it does?

Here are the possible answers:


  • Protects me like a suit of armour
  • Have eyes on the end to sense light and dark
  • Helps me sense vibrations and move
  • Helps me move smoothly
  • Help me smell out food

Shell -

Lower tentacles -

Slime -

Upper tentacles -

Body -



Answers:

Shell > Protects me like a suit of armour

Upper tentacles > Have eyes on the end to sense light and dark

Body > Helps me sense vibrations and move

Slime > helps me move smoothly

Lower tentacles > Help me smell out food



What jobs in nature do I do? Pick all that are correct

I tidy up by eating dead plants and fungi

I am food for other creatures

I leave slime trails for people to slip on

I poo out nutrients into the soil to help plants grow


Answers:

I tidy up by eating dead plants and fungi [yes]

I am food for other creatures [yes]

I leave slime trails for people to slip on [no]

I poo out nutrients into the soil to help plants grow [yes]



Become a snail protector

Now you have followed the slime trail of a snail you know how amazing they are.

You can now become a Snail Protector.

Earth care is all about how we can look after and conserve the earth and all of its plants and creatures. 

We can help care for snails by:

  • Telling other people how amazing and beautiful they are.
  • Keeping untidy wilder areas in the garden.
  • Not using slug pellets in our gardens to kill them (these can also harm the creatures that eat snails).
  • Moving them out of danger if we think someone will stand on them.

Ultime modifiche: lunedì, 15 maggio 2023, 17:26