Partula snails are a family of fingernail-sized mollusks native to French Polynesia. For a long time, these critters were both scientifically and culturally significant to researchers and the native (human) population—the reason their near extinction in the late 20th century set off a global, systematic project to bring them back.

So far, 2025 has been a great year for Partula snails. In spring, a subspecies of the family was reclassified from Extinct-in-the-Wild to Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Now, the global collaboration announced that it had reintroduced over 7,000 Partula snails back into their island homes this year alone. It’s the largest release of the group since 1991, when the breeding program began, according to a press release from the Zo

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