New Zealand conservationists say a technical bug caused the deaths of 800 rare earth snails (classified as highly endangered).
The giant land snail named Powelliphanta (pictured) is only available in New Zealand. Several years ago, due to the need to operate a coal mine on the Stockton Plateau, 6,000 Powelliphanta snails were moved to the new habitat. Of which 4,000 have returned to their natural environment, the rest are kept in captivity for scientific research and conservation in order to avoid extinction.
John Lyall, technical management staff, said the snails were kept in three containers. A temperature probe suddenly crashed, dropping the temperature too low and killing 800 snails.
According to the BBC, the crash left some environmentalists unhappy and criticized the captivity of rare animals instead of letting them live in the natural environment. First, their “home” on the Stockton Plateau was destroyed for coal mining and this time they died in captivity. To prevent this from happening again, alarm systems have been installed for regular monitoring.
