For this week's video, we are back in the desert island,
where Tiago and the rest of the expedition are trying to save
four critically endangered species from extinction.
We've decided to support this project regardless of the general appeal
of saving snails, because we think they're important.
We think they matter.
However, it was really motivating to see that
you our Mossy Earth members, and our audience in general
also believe in the importance of saving these beautiful animals.
So I want to send out a big thank you to everyone who left a positive comment,
as I know it was a great boost in morale for the team.
And I would also like to encourage you to keep doing so as it means a lot to
everyone here at Mossy Earth.
Oh, and if you haven't heard yet, we now have a Discord server for our community.
It's a place to share ideas and where you can talk with the team
about our projects. We would love to have you there.
The link is in the description.
In the first four days of the expedition
the team searched for three out of the four target species
they hiked up and down the island, scaled cliffs, lifted rocks
and searched the bracken fern in the last known locations for these snails.
In total, they found more than 150 Geomitra grabhami
and collected 80 for the program.
Then, after some difficulty, they found about 100
Discula leylliana, of which they collected 50.
Those species are ready to be sent to the breeding program and their future
looks bright.
However, for Atlantica calathoides only four individuals were found.
They had to be tagged and left in the field as it was not enough
to set up a breeding program now for the final days of the expedition.
All efforts turned to Geomitra coronula.
This species is found on the opposite end of the island,
so to get there is a mission in itself.
During the fifth day of the expedition, everybody took a well-deserved rest day.
Tiago took the opportunity and went swimming around the caves,
and in the afternoon, the team dropped off some of the water and other supplies
halfway up the trail for the next day.
Because the journey to reach these snails will be taken in two days,
with one night being spent in a shelter and then finally on the sixth day.
The team got started on their mission.
So we have just been
dropped off the beach here by the boat,
and we're heading up to camp
for one night in an area that's at the top and
this is the path we need to take to get there.
And because there's a lot of loose rock, that's why
we have to wear the helmets.
So that's the valley
we've just hiked with all the food and water
and just arriving at the shelter.
This shelter is used by Rangers who need to work on this side of the island.
In the past, it was primarily used to work on the conservation of the Wolf Spider.
Another endangered endemic species.
We will be covering their story in a future video
as it's really interesting, so keep an eye out for that.
So just leaving our home for the night,
we left our stuff there the water, the sleeping bags, all of that.
And now we're going to search for Geomitra coronula,
which is the only species we haven't searched for
and to the only known spot
where we think we might be able to find it.
And yeah, just heading out now, let's see if we're lucky.
Once more, the last population of these snails lives in a very remote cliffside
that is quite hard to access.
We've been searching for
about an hour now, and we haven't found
any individuals of the target species yet.
We'll keep going for however long we still have left.
And let's see if we have any luck.
We have marked
the two specimens that we found of Geomitra coronula
and then we are leaving them in the wild again.
As expected, it was really
complicated, very, very difficult to find them.
It is very, very dry at the moment.
The soil and the sensation that we have
is that probably we are we came too late in the season.
The issue is that snails estivate, which is the equivalent to hibernation,
but in hot and dry weather.
In practical terms,
this means they dig down through the soil to about 15 centimeters,
where they use a membrane to block up their shell and prevent the further
loss of water until the season changes, and they can come out again .
So that just shows you the complexity of monitoring these rare
and endangered populations in these remote areas
where depending on the weather and the time of the year, you might
or might not be able to find them.
We also had this this little incident
where I had the little plastic tube where.
where the only
two individuals we had found where we were keeping them
and all I was climbing up the scrambling of this,
this cliff when I realized it was no longer in my pocket.
I'm not sure what happened, whether it fell from my pocket or
if it was earlier, because at one point I was standing on the cliff
and someone above me let some rocks roll down.
So they just started rolling down and I had to look
for where it was coming from and just dodge it.
So it was a bit of
a moment where I might have just due to the stress,
I might have just dropped the tube.
But the end result was I spent half an hour
or so just super stressed, like looking for the tube
with these only two individuals we were able to find.
Because, yeah, I definitely would have been terrible to
to just leave them in the tube because they would die.
So I was just so stressed searching for it. Um.
Luckily,
I was just going back and forth where I had been,
just when I saw it, I was so relieved I took the tube
and I was so happy to find it.
The best case scenario is that these snails were hiding
and we can come back at a better time to find enough individuals.
The worst case scenario is that they'll become extinct.
Still, we've managed to find two out of four snails,
which is a significant achievement and an important step in saving those species.
This gives us a bittersweet sensation of this expedition.
We found
the specimens for only two species
to two target species, but well, it is what it is.
It's mixed feelings, but it went very well.
We tried to find them.
We were unsuccessful for these last two
the coronula and calathoides, but we'll be back and we'll try again.
This expedition took place in the late spring of 2021,
and we are happy to let you know that the snails are now successfully
breeding at the Chester and Bristol zoos, which is amazing.
As a consequence of the success of this expedition, two more have been planned.
One which was carried out in the fall of 2021
with some exciting results and another one for this upcoming spring.
We will keep you posted here on the channel with updates
on these expeditions.
For now,
this is the end of the first part of this series, which lasted three episodes.
If you enjoyed it, please consider
showing the team some love in the comments below.
I know they'll appreciate it, and if you want to help fund this type
of project, please consider becoming a member at Mossy.Earth.
You can learn all about it in this video right here.
Until next time. Cheers!