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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Patrick Barkham

Search is on for the German hairy snail in London

German hairy snail.
The snail, the size of a fingernail, gets its name from the fine hairs on its shell, thought to help it shed moisture. Photograph: Gino Brignoli/Citizen Zoo

It is tiny, hairy and “German” – and it could be hiding underneath a piece of driftwood near you. Citizen scientists and expert conchologists are teaming up to conduct the first London-wide search for one of Britain’s most endangered molluscs.

The fingernail-sized German hairy snail (Pseudotrichia rubiginosa) is found in fragmented patches of habitat mostly along the tidal Thames.

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