EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Explanation:  Watch your step on this trail.  It's well after dark, in a native Bantu village deep in the heart of the Congo River Basin.  Behind our hut I encounter two Giant African Land Snails.  Their shells alone measure at least 20 cm (8 inches) in length.  These are the largest terrestrial gastropod on Earth.  Large land snails I have encountered in the Upper Amazon of Ecuador were merely 13-15 cm (5-6 inches), and I thought those were big.  

Elsewhere in the world, introductions of Giant African Land Snails have wrought ecological havoc.  They have been established on Pacific Islands including Hawaii; on some Caribbean islands; and in north-central United States.  

One story has it that a Miami boy smuggled just three of these snails into Florida in 1966.  Seven years later, there were more than 18,000, and it took the State of Florida 10 years and one million dollars to eradicate them.  These snails can cause extensive damage to important food crops and other agricultural resources and pose human health risks by carrying a parasite that causes meningitis.  Still, Giant African Land Snails are raised in captivity but probably should not be kept as pets.

Some sources suggest that these snails are farmed in their native African countries as food, but I did not see that in west-central Democratic Republic of the Congo.  I have found no information on what preys on this snail in its native forests, but perhaps primates, forest hog, native cats, and other terrestrial predators may enjoy such an encounter.

A commensal?  An unidentified
spider hitching a (slow) ride.