SUNY-ESF snail-breeding program aims to restore species

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Three years ago, flooding decimated a population of rare snails in upstate New York. Now, a team of researchers at SUNY-ESF is working to reintroduce 1,000 of those snails into the wild.

The population of Chittenango ovate amber snails has declined since the flooding of its main habitat –– a waterfall in Chittenango Falls State Park in Cazenovia, New York –– in the summer of 2017. In response, SUNY-ESF launched a years-long captive breeding program with the aim of releasing a new population of captive snails at the waterfall every year.

“Every one of the releases is special,” said Rebecca Rundell, an associate professor in SUNY-ESF’s Department of Environmental and Forest Biology and the project’s faculty leader. “We’re really lucky to be able to do it.”

While the project’s ultimate goal is to reinstate 1,000 stable snails into the wild, there are currently only a few hundred left at the waterfall, according to a 2019 review of the project.

SUNY-ESF has partnered with several environmental organizations for the project, including the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Chittenango Falls State Park to release captive snails at the waterfall, Rundell said.

Determining the snails’ diet has been one of the more difficult aspects of the project, said Emlyn Clark, a graduate student at SUNY-ESF who has assisted with the project. Clark has devoted a considerable amount of her time at school to collecting leaves, which are a critical part of the Chittenango ovate amber snail’s diet.

“I’m not going to lie, I’ve almost got into a car accident a couple of times looking at piles of leaves people have put on the side of the road,” Clark said.

Chittenango ovate amber snails are an extremely small and rare breed. Courtesy of Emlyn Clark

Researchers struggled to determine the snails’ dietary requirements until 2016, when a graduate student at SUNY-ESF at the time developed a feeding system as part of her master’s degree thesis, Clark said.

Even with a developed system, feeding the snails remains a full-time pursuit, Clark said.

Clark, who is one of the snails’ main caregivers, works with other student assistants — known as “snailblazers” — to feed and look after the snails as the college reintroduces them into the wild.

While the snails are picky about their diet, they don’t require much more maintenance once they are fed, said Toni Daino, another snailblazer.

“As long as they have their leaves and are constantly in the water, they’re pretty happy,” Daino said.

Daino spends most of her time sorting through collected leaves to feed the snails and cleaning their terrariums. She also created coloring pages with pictures of the snails for distribution at the state park.

When it comes time for release, the snailblazers select “promising” snails based on their health, tag them, drive them to Chittenango Falls State Park, find food sources and let them go, Clark said.

“It’s nowhere near as dramatic or as big an affair as when someone is releasing eagles,” Clark said.

Following the release, researches will conduct mark-and-recapture studies to assess the snails’ population numbers, Rundell said.

Half of North America’s native land snails are endangered, and few captive breeding programs still exist, Rundell said. Many of the programs that do exist are not highly successful in bolstering snail populations due to external threats snails face in the wild, Rundell said.

While the Chittenango snail does not face as many threats as other snail species, that doesn’t mean it is completely safe, Rundell said. Visitors to Chittenango Falls State Park often climb the fence around the snails’ habitat and onto the rocks around the waterfall, inadvertently stepping on snails, Rundell said.

“(The snails are) very peaceful, but they’re not gonna be able to move out of the way when a boot comes by,” Rundell said.

Clark encouraged those interested in supporting the snail restoration effort to visit the snailblazers’ Facebook group. Some donations to the Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo organization also go toward care for the snails or for outreach programs, she said.

Supporters can also purchase “snail ale” from Critz Farms, a brewing company in Cazenovia, New York. Some proceeds from the beer’s sale go to support the project, Clark said.

While both Clark and Rundell said the success of the Chittenango snail restoration project is uncertain, they are confident that the project’s partners will be helpful in finding a solution.

“We have really outstanding groups we get to work with who care very, very much,” Clark said.