Nature
PUBLISHED
In the forests of South Africa a group of snails can be found doing something a bit surprising. Tail-wagger snails do what it says on the tin, throwing around small black protrusions like little dogs in a good mood.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Exactly what purpose the tail-wagging serves isn’t known for certain, but it’s been suggested it could be a crucial behavior for when the time comes to mate. According to Dr Werner de Gier, these snails have a reputation for dramatic escape attempts, through a combination of tail-wagging, shell-spinning, and even bungee jumping. This kind of James Bond slime magic has been observed in slugs, too, who will use mucus threads to slide down like a spider.
Tail-wagger snails belong to the Urocyclidae family of air-breathing land snails, slugs, and semi-slugs. Once thought to be a single group, the tail-wagger snails were joined by a new genus and eight new species from eastern South Africa in 2017, and it seems we still have a lot to learn about them.
Filmmaker and conservation warrior Josh Crickmay recently happened upon some tail-wagger snails in one of the more joyful videos IFLScience has seen of late. He spotted the rare sight while out walking in the forests of St Lucia, a settlement in uMkhanyakude District Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
“I barely believe these actually exist,” he can be heard saying in the clip. “Look at that! They are mating I believe, and they seem to be very happy about it, judging by their behaviour.”
“I’ve been wanting to see these guys for a long time. I’ve heard about them before particularly in these forests around St Lucia. […] They wag their tails with the purpose of finding a partner, which begs the question, why keep wagging once you’ve found your partner? I can only assume it’s because they’re pretty happy about it.”
When asked in the comments if the tail-wagging does indeed indicate happiness, Crickmay explained that we know so little about these snails it’s hard to know, but some have suggested the wagging could help to waft pheromones.
Whatever the reason, it’s hard to ignore the dog-like glee of their tail-wagging, begging the question: what’s the canine equivalent of anthropomorphizing?
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