How to watch a snail
Wet ground, failing light, and a minute of stillness. Handling is usually the part that teaches you the least.
Filed under
Behavior
Movement, memory, courtship, and the seasons.
Where snails go in winter
Hibernation is a sealed shell in a place that loses heat slowly. Bare soil in a hard frost is the dangerous address.
Waiting out the drought
A snail sealed to a wall in August is estivating. The white film over the opening is a temporary door, not a death.
Eggs and the first whorl
A hatchling garden snail already has a shell. The parent buries the clutch, covers it, and does not come back.
Courtship and the love dart
Garden snails are hermaphrodites, and some of them stab a chalky dart during courtship. The dart is not itself the sperm.
Homing, and the evening roost
Many snails leave a shelter at dusk and come back to it. Chemical trails explain more of that than any map.
The uses of mucus
The silver trail is a road, a glue, and a message. It is also expensive, which is why other snails reuse it.