UK-Portugal snail-saving project hailed a success

Conservationists in the UK and Portugal hail a pioneering snail breeding programme a success for saving two critically endangered species from extinction and spurring the release of 1,329 on a remote Atlantic island.

The Desertas Island land snails were believed to be extinct.

They had not been spotted for more than a century, until conservationists rediscovered a small population on Deserta Grande island, close to Madeira, in 2017.