‘It’s an obsession’: one man and his family on a mission to save Europe’s glutinous snail

Ian Hughes with two glutinous snails in their last remaining UK habitat, Llyn Tegid, in Wales. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Ian Hughes and his son, Ben, are driving through the hills of north Wales with an array of homemade animal artefacts rattling around their car: diagrams, plaster casts, hand-printed T-shirts. They finally reach Llyn Tegid – Bala Lake in English – where, knee-deep in the water, Ian brandishes two glutinous snails.

It is a mollusc the size of a fingertip. It is also one of Europe’s most endangered species, which Ian has dedicated himself to protecting. “It’s beyond passion,” he says. “It’s an obsession.”