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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Eva Corlett

New Zealand launches campaign to find love for rare and lonely left-spiralling snail Ned

Ned the snail (front), who has a left-spiralling shell can only mate with another very rare ‘lefty’ snail - prompting a nationwide search in New Zealand to find Ned love.
Ned the snail (front), who has a left-spiralling shell can only mate with another very rare ‘lefty’ snail - prompting a nationwide search in New Zealand to find Ned love. Photograph: Giselle Clarkson

If you thought your dating pool was limited, spare a thought for Ned, a very rare snail unearthed in New Zealand. Due to a left-spiralling shell, Ned has a vanishingly small chance of finding a mate – a predicament that has sparked a nationwide campaign.

Nearly all common garden snails have shells that coil to the right but Ned’s left-spiralling shell is like a mirror image, resulting in a flipped shell and reversed reproductive organs – a configuration that affects roughly 1 in 40,000 snails.

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