{"id":1799,"date":"2021-05-04T08:37:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T14:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/?p=1799"},"modified":"2025-06-09T18:50:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T18:50:34","slug":"just-like-humans-can-take-a-bus-a-train-or-an-airplane-freshwater-snails-can-take-a-beetle-an-elephant-or-a-duck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/2021\/05\/04\/just-like-humans-can-take-a-bus-a-train-or-an-airplane-freshwater-snails-can-take-a-beetle-an-elephant-or-a-duck\/","title":{"rendered":"Just like humans can take a bus, a train or an airplane, freshwater snails can take a beetle, an elephant or a duck"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Author: Juli\u00e1n Monge N\u00e1jera, Ecologist and Photographer&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Documented cases of freshwater snails using unexpected means of transportation explain how these slow animals reach ponds, lakes and rivers separated by land or ocean, with ranges that go from Canada to Brazil and the Caribbean islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tiny snails of the species&nbsp;<em>Fonscochlea accepta<\/em>&nbsp;occur in hundreds of natural water springs in the desert of central Australia: do they reach these isolated springs through underground water connections between the springs? This is more difficult than it may sound, because the underground water is pressurized; maybe animals carry them from spring to spring, but nobody knows for sure\u00b9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are, however, documented cases of freshwater snails that are transported by other animals over long distances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2021\/05\/1-1-1024x865.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1807\" data-link=\"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/2021\/05\/02\/just-like-humans-can-take-a-bus-a-train-or-an-airplane-freshwater-snails-can-take-a-beetle-an-elephant-or-a-duck\/1-1\/\" class=\"wp-image-1807\" \/><figcaption>On my coffee table: ink sketches of how freshwater snails travel long distances rapidly by riding predatory water beetles, birds and terrestrial vertebrates, including elephants.<br \/>&nbsp;<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Adult snails, and their eggs, have been found attached to predatory freshwater beetles like&nbsp;<em>Dytiscus marginalis, Acilius&nbsp;<\/em>sp. and<em>&nbsp;Melodema coriaceum<\/em>. The snails associated with these beetles are species of Ancylidae\u00b2, a family of hard-shelled gastropods that feed on underwater microvegetation and can breathe in both water and air, thanks to having pseudo-branchiae and lungs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Freshwater snails have also been found in the bobolink (<em>Dolichonyx oryzivorus<\/em>), a long-lived bird that feeds on grains and insects and migrates between South and North America\u00b2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 1980s, Canadian zoologist David A. Boag made experiments with young pond snails of the species&nbsp;<em>Lymnaea stagnalis, Stagnicola elodes,&nbsp;<\/em>and<em>&nbsp;Helisoma trivolvis<\/em>, and found&nbsp;<em>Helisoma trivolvis<\/em>&nbsp;could potentially survive 10 km trips along the migration routes of ducks between Central America, the Caribbean and North America\u00b3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His experiments, though, only tested snails attached to isolated feathers, and most died from dehydration; in real life, the snails would travel protected inside a feather coat or adhered to mud on the duck\u00b4s body, and probably could survive much longer periods and distances.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Live snails and their eggs have also been found adhering to hair and mud in mammals, even in African elephants that travel hundreds of kilometers per day from one watering hole to the next \u2074, but probably the best friend of freshwater snails is our species: we carry them everywhere in our muddy boots and tools, and on a much larger scale, we have taken them to much of the world through the huge and growing aquarium trade\u2075.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>*Edited&nbsp;by&nbsp;Katherine Bonilla y&nbsp;Carolina Seas.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Originally published&nbsp;&nbsp;in Blog Biolog\u00eda Tropical:&nbsp;24&nbsp;September&nbsp;2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>REFERENC<\/strong><strong>ES<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00b9 Worthington, W. J., et al. (2008). The influence of multiple dispersal mechanisms and landscape structure on population clustering and connectivity in fragmented artesian spring snail populations.&nbsp;<em>Molecular Ecology<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>17<\/em>(16), 3733-3751. DOI: 10.1111\/j.1365-294X.2008.03861.x<br \/>\u00b2 Rees, W. J. (1965). The aerial dispersal of Mollusca.&nbsp;<em>Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London, 36<\/em>(5), 269-282.<br \/>\u00b3 Boag, D. A. (1986). Dispersal in pond snails: potential role of waterfowl.&nbsp;<em>Canadian Journal of Zoology<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>64<\/em>(4), 904-909. DOI: 10.1139\/z86-136&nbsp;<br \/>\u2074 Van Leeuwen, C. H. et al. (2013). How did this snail get here? Several dispersal vectors inferred for an aquatic invasive species.&nbsp;<em>Freshwater Biology<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>58<\/em>(1), 88-99.<br \/>\u2075 Yanai, Z., et al. (2017). The pet and horticultural trades as introduction and dispersal agents of non-indigenous freshwater mollusks.&nbsp;<em>Management of Biological Invasions<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>8<\/em>(4), 523-532.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Juli\u00e1n Monge N\u00e1jera, Ecologist and Photographer <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scientific-investigation","8":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2020,"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions\/2020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investiga.uned.ac.cr\/urbanecology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}