These native land snails (Powelliphanta traversi) were eaten by a possum. It was not until the 1970s that scientists realised that rats and pigs were not responsible for the large numbers of dead snails found in the South Island’s mountain forests and alpine grasslands. Possums bite through the shell near its opening and extract the snail within.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Department of Conservation
Reference:
10027845
Photograph by Keith Briden
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