A Desertas Island land snail. The pea-sized snail was believed to have been extinct, but it may have been pulled back from the brink this week after more than 1,300 bred in the UK and France were released back on to the Portuguese island. Chester Zoo spearheaded the breeding project. Dr Gerardo Garcia, the zoo’s head of ectotherms, said: “They’d never been in human care before and we had to start from a blank piece of paper and try to figure out what makes them tick: how to care for them, how to create an environment in which they could flourish, and how to encourage them to breed”
Photograph: Chester Zoo/PA
