Powelliphanta Snails

The Powelliphanta land snails of Aotearoa/New Zealand are of very ancient lineage – they were already on board when New Zealand drifted south from the massive continent of Gondwana 84 million years ago. Then, like the moa and weta, the carnivorous Powelliphanta land snails developed gigantism, and became jewels in the strange New Zealand world where large flightless invertebrates took the niche occupied elsewhere by small mammals.

Powelliphanta are not your average garden snail – they live for an average of 15 years, suck native worms direct from the ground like spaghetti, and range from the fist-sized golden shelled Powelliphanta superba prouseorum, which weighs as much as a tui, to the smaller russet coloured Powelliphanta ‘Augustus’.

Powelliphanta snails are slow growing and don’t breed until they are five or six. They have few defences against introduced predators and not surprisingly, many are now considered highly threatened species. Alpine species such as those on Mt Augustus have fared better, because the cold and wet environment discourages predators – but this won’t help defend the snails against a coal mine.

All species of the Powelliphanta genus are absolutely protected under the Wildlife Act 1953.