Endemic snails in Tenerife - you too can find something rather interesting (and not even realise)

Oh to be back in the Tenerife sunshine. Never mind. I guess spring is not far away, and then there will be all sorts of interesting plants and animals to discover in this country. I really hope that you'll be enthused with whatever group you choose, and give yourself enough time to delve into whatever most fires your interest about them, and write about that in your notebook (I hope you find using your notebook in Tenerife has given you some encouragement).

This morning I have been researching which ferns live on the cloud-forested slopes of Anaga (at the north of the island, for those too unfortunate to have been on the fieldtrip). I want to make a guide so perhaps future groups can take quadrats to discover how fern species change along the trail.

I'm getting very drawn in into the world of the fern. Which is a good thing really. And likewise the other day I was inspired to try and identify some empty snail shells I'd spotted on a jaunt to some open ground near the hotel. Here's one of them - it's about the size of a Brown-lipped snail from the UK, but it's got the most amazing ribby sculpture.

I found a list of endemic Tenerifean snails and checking their pictures thought it might be Hemicycla plicaria. (I don't think I've found a list of non-endemic Tenerifean snails. But then again, the vast majority of land snails there are endemic. I guess you don't get a whole lot of genetic interaction between Tenerife and the continent when it comes to snails).

I was pleased enough with this discovery, but then ended up going down a rabbit hole of snail-related information. For one thing, it turns out that this species is really localised and rare - in fact it only lives in the area around Candelaria where we were staying (there's a map here).   It's apparently only within a 10km2 area. And so it gets on the Critically Endangered list of the IUCN.

So that's really amazing isn't it, and goes to show that you never know what you might find. Ironically, when we were about to set foot on the land to have a poke about, a local couple tried to put us off, presumably thinking we would like a nice stroll along the sea front, not a hike over some "waste ground" where they had just allowed their dog to relieve itself. I tried to communicate that we were "looking for animals", but they said there were no animals. How Wrong They Were. We found lizards, geckos, beetles and bugs, birds, - and a critically endangered snail, for goodness sake.

We might not have any endemic snails in the UK. But there are many species you'll never have seen before and will be surprised at. And if you're seeking a different group, who knows what interesting things you might find. Nature doesn't come with massive signposts. You'll definitely find interesting things that other people routinely ignore (to their detriment), and you may even find something very unusual (as this student did).

I hope you get motivated to get stuck in. And please do bring me things, as I'm always interested to see them and will do my best to help you work out how to identify them.