In 2011, a giant carnivorous albino snail was found in New Zealand. It was only the second one ever recorded, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Powelliphanta snails are found in New Zealand and are the giants of the snail world. They are carnivores, with their favourite prey being earthworms. They also eat slugs for their survival.
The first was 23 years ago in 1988, when a Powelliphanta Gilliesi gilliesi snail was found at Mt Burnett in Golden Bay.
However, that Gilliesi snail was only partially albino. It had dark internal patterning still visible on its otherwise white body and, like the recent find, still had a normally-coloured shell.
Department of Conservation Powelliphanta expert Kath Walker says in more than 30 years studying the native snails it is only the second albino she has seen on earth.
According to K. Waker said albinism was known to occur in many animal species around the world. It is not peculiar to snail species only. The snail was found as “off-white, like Milky Bar white chocolate” in colour.
The absence in pigment, which could be partial or complete, was due to a genetically-inherited defect in the enzyme which produced melanin which is the color pigment.
These snails live among the leaf litter on the forest floor from which they are mostly found in cool and wet weather.
Zoologist Wole Adekunle
