Humming To Snails

The common periwinkle is a gastropod found from the Bay of Fundy to New Jersey, and extending to Europe. They are about the size of a hershey kiss and eat the algae and moss that are on rocks. There are many tales that humming to the snail will make it emerge from its shell. The theories are that the vibration of the hum entices the snail to come out or that it is relaxing for the snail. Research has been attempted to explore this idea. The results from the research have been inconclusive, and the only clear thing at the moment is to believe that patience is the only key to making a snail emerge from its shell.

Snails Survive Being Eaten By Birds

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In a National Geographic article this week, researchers in Japan found live snails, specifically of Tornatellides boeningi, in the feces of Japanese white-eye birds. These snails are generally 0.1 inches long and the process of passing through the bird's gut takes approximately thirty minutes to two hours. A graduate student, Shinichiro Wada, at Tohoku University and his colleagues fed over 150 of these snails to white-eye birds and brown-eared bulbuls and fifteen percent of the snails survived. Scientists believe the reason behind this mystery is the size of the snails prevents its shells from being cracked. In addition, "these snails, like many land snails, have the ability to seal their shells' opening with a mucus film called the epiphragm" says Wada. This is only an assumption made by Wada. The reason behind how these snails survived being eaten remains a mystery.

I found it remarkable that these snails were alive as they were going through these birds' digestive tract. The only species you would think would be alive in another organism are parasitic organisms. It also makes me wonder if these snails would be able to survive be eaten by larger animals or even human beings, who have more developed digestive systems. It is possible that these snails are only capable of surviving being eaten by birds. Reading this article made me curious about the digestive system of birds. It is amazing to know the digestive fluid of these birds were unable to break down the snails' shells or seep through the epiphragm.