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Manus Island tree-snail |
In this wet forest, the Manus Island tree-snail has lots of water from the rain, so it will not dry out. It lives high in trees and this has many advantages:
- It will not be washed away by fast flowing water.
- It is high above many predators.
- It is well hidden amongst the green leaves.
- There is plenty of the snail's food on the tree (fungus, lichen and dead plant material).
Breeding
A wet, humid environment allows the Manus Island tree-snail to breed several times a year.
The eggs are larger and fewer in number than many other snails, and most babies survive to be adults.
| Danger ahead
These snails only live on one small island. In the past, people left them alone, but today tourists buy their shells as souvenirs, so local people now collect and kill them. People have also brought new predators to the area to control pests. Some of these new animals eat the Manus Island tree-snails. The destruction of habitat is the greatest danger to survival of this species and other tree-snails. |
Manus Island tree-snails. Shells (no data) from SAM collection with modelled bodies. |
The Manus Island tree-snail
- lives off the ground where it will not get washed away or drowned
- hides in cracks or in its shell if the weather is too dry
- can lay eggs several times a year because the weather is usually wet
- has only a few babies but most of them live to be adults.
 Epiphytes live on trees, not in the soil. |
 Vegetation
On the tree trunks The Manus Island tree-snail lives on the trunks of trees well above the ooze of the rainforest floor. So do plants called epiphytes. Epiphytes live on the trees, not in the soil on the floor of the forest. Some of them have features which help them live on the trunks and branches. These include:
Some epiphytes, such as fungus and lichen in the cracks and crevices of tree bark, are food for the Manus Island tree-snail. |