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‘It’s an obsession’: one man and his family on a mission to save Europe’s glutinous snail
Ian Hughes is boosting one of the continent’s most at-risk species with science, his sons and some homemade T-shirts
TL;DR
- Ian Hughes dedicates himself to conserving the endangered glutinous snail, whose last wild population in Britain resides in Llyn Tegid, north Wales.
- His conservation methods involve careful handling of the delicate snails using a paintbrush and breeding them in homemade tanks within his conservatory.
- Hughes involves his sons, Ben and George, in his conservation projects, including creating artificial refuges for the snails and illustrating children's books about endangered species.
- The glutinous snail faces extinction due to pollution and habitat degradation, with the species already extinct in England.
- A recent £60 million government funding boost from Defra is set to support further conservation efforts for threatened species like the glutinous snail.