French Polynesia
Partula snails
The isolation and steep forest terrain of French Polynesia’s high volcanic islands, which include Tahiti and Moorea, has created hotspots of endemic invertebrates, birds and plants. The introduction of the Florida rosy wolf snail in the mid 1970s, as a bio-control agent against the giant African land snail, has had a disastrous impact on the endemic snail fauna across the Pacific region.
Although 12 species have been saved by the Partula breeding programme, over 50 Partula species have become extinct across the Islands and unfortunately this pattern of extinction continues to be repeated on many other island groups.
