Size: Up to 30cm long, 10cm diameter. Weight; 650-1000g.

Habitat and Distribution: Originally found in East Africa, Kenya and Tanzania although is now found throughout most of Africa. Found in most habitats including agricultural areas, coastland, forests, scrublands, urban areas, and wetlands but thrives especially in forests.

Age: Usually 5 to7 years but may live up to 10 years.

Groups and Breeding: The East African Land Snail is protandrous hermaphrodite; which actually means that it has both male and female sexual organs and can therefore breed with other snails or entirely by itself. If the snail does breed, it can store sperm so that it can produce several batches of eggs. Eggs usually measure around 5mm in diameter and up to 200 are laid at any one time. They hatch after 1 to 21 days depending on the temperature.

Diet: Very small and old individuals tend to eat detritus and rotting vegetation, whereas snails up to 3cm in length eat living vegetation. They have a huge range of host plants which they feed on.

• A single land snail can produce up to 1200 eggs a year.
• Although once found only in Africa, this snail is now found throughout the world and is considered to be one of the most damaging snails in the world, feeding on over 500 types of plant crops. In the USA, it is actually illegal to possess. It is nominated one of the 100 worst invaders on the Global Invasive Species Database.
• In 1966, a boy smuggled three giant African snails into south Florida upon returning from a trip to Hawaii. His grandmother eventually released the snails into her garden. Seven years later, more than 18,000 snails had been found along with scores of eggs. The Florida State eradication programme took 10 years at a cost of $1 million.
• The largest land snail ever found was 37.5cm long.
• A snail’s tongue (known as a radula) is covered with a rough chitin surface which it uses to grind down food. This continues to grow throughout its life.
• Most of a snail’s growth is done in the first year of life.
• The land snail is killed by direct sunshine and only remains active from 2 to 29 degrees C. It will survive temperatures below and above this, by hibernating or aestivation (where it seals itself into its shell using a kind of mucus plug).
• These snails can travel up to 50metres a night and up to 125metres in a single month.