Wednesday 14 November 2012

I found gold

Saturday 10th November, started like any other day,  I woke up a little too early and decided to check around the house for snails.It rained the day before so I felt the snails might still be around.  My husband decided to go with me. I picked one, two, three, four here and there. Some a little big, some small then suddenly I saw it. I screamed, it was too big I step back. It didn't look real. My husband stepped forward a bit I guess we were both scared. We had a cutlass with us, He used the cutlass to clear some of the leaves around the snail, then there was another one near it but not as big as the other one.

The sight before us was a very big snail. The biggest I had ever seen. Its shell had turned white probably with age. I guess I have the biggest snail ever seen. Initially we thought the snail was a snake or it might turn to one. We approached with caution and collected the two snails.  This type of snail is not easily seen anywhere. It looked like something you see only in the dream. Its now in my snail pen and I have been watching it closely. I felt I should cook it immediately since it looked very old, but I couldn't it feels like gold in my hand.

On that particular day I picked 10 snails just around the house. I didn't go into the bush to get them. I wonder what one might find if you went into the bush to really hunt for snail. However the bushes have to go, they habour snakes, monitor lizards, alligators, scorpions and much more. Just yesterday an alligator was seen wandering around the house. I am determined to burn the bush because of the dangerous animals that inhabit there, but the natural home of this snails would also go. This animals too would be endangered, It  would be good if  someone would come to their aid. Probably take them away to a games reserve.  

Monday 5 November 2012

Meet the saved snails

Some pictures of my snails

Identification of these snails have been a bit difficult. They have been called Achatina fulica,
Achatina Achatina, Archachatina, Achatina marginata and so on, sometimes its so confusing. I guess the name you give your snail is what it will bear.
This is Pretty
The fairy
This is Grandfather snail
This is  the Agile one
This is Grandmother
This is The foreigner
Curly
Beautiful
Friendly