Fire Snails,

I have never heard of them,

  but here they are, Platymma tweediei as it is known to its friends, was first discovered in 1938, in Telom Valley, Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands district. Since then, it has also been spotted in Temenggor and Kelantan, but nowhere else, photographs Max’s Exotic Garden/Facebook,

 endemic to a very specific area on the Malaysian Peninsula, the Fire Snail – named after its bright red foot –it  is one of the rarest, most sought after snail species in the world,according to conservationist Junn Kitt Foot, from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), the stunning-looking snail species can only be found in a 100km radius in the Cameron Highlands, as it only thrives in very specific conditions. Apparently fire snails can only live in very cool, humid environments, more specifically cloud forests – forests located high enough for clouds to form in (at least 1,000 meters above sea level),

in an article published on ResearchGate, Junn Kitt Foot reports that even within the 100km radius that makes up its habitat, the fire snail is very rarely seen. That may be because of the massive deforestation taking place in Cameron Highlands, but also because of the lucrative fire snail trade. Threads on snail raising forums suggest that the species is very popular among enthusiasts, who often resort to smuggling in order to get their hands on the rare mollusks,

unfortunately, as is the case with most creatures endemic to cloud forest, fire snails do not survive for long when taken out of their natural habitat, and they certainly cannot be bred in captivity. That means that enthusiasts have no other alternative than constantly getting new adult specimens to keep their hobby going, but in the above photograph one can be seen with eggs,

so perhaps they can be bred in captivity? in any event if not, the fate of these strange looking snails is sealed as the native population dwindles.