The Magnificent Ramshorn Snail and the Greenfield Ramshorn Snail haven’t been found in the wild for more than a decade.
While the names assigned to these creatures might sound imposing, the two types of Ramshorn snails are relatively tiny animals. They’re also indigenous to the Cape Fear region.
Andy Wood’s efforts to save the Magnificent Ramshorn are well-documented. Biologist Sarah McRae with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recounts a time in 1996 when Hurricane Fran pounded the North Carolina coast – and Andy Wood rushed outside braving floodwaters and high winds to save what may have been some of the last remaining Magnificent Ramshorn Snails on earth.
If you’ve been a WHQR listener for more than a decade, you might remember Andy Wood’s wildly popular nature commentaries. As an Ecologist and Conservation Educator, he has worked as Education Curator at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, for Audubon North Carolina, and he now runs his own nonprofit called Coastal Plain Conservation Group.
