Back in 2003, as I prepared to travel to Guam for work, I was told the story I shared in last week’s Did You Know Armadillos Don’t Fair Well In . . . Guam?
There is a mention, in information about the Governor, of armadillos being transported to Guam from Texas—but only once and only one pair. They were, supposedly, promptly “stolen and presumed eaten.”1
While the full details don’t appear to be recorded anywhere, the armadillo venture was not a secret, at least not in the men’s Texas hometown. Which is why someone from there asked me to investigate when I got to Guam. To find out: What happened to the snails?
When I put the question to my on-site project manager, he led me outside, then had me wait while he ran behind the office and into the woods. He returned with two large, empty snail shells and dropped them into my hands. He said officials imported larger African snails to eat the smaller snails. Then, because their food source disappeared, they died away.
Unfortunately, while this makes for a wonderful “rest of the story” ending, his answer in relation to the timing of the armadillo mishap is suspect. I learned later, the armadillos were supposed to eat the giant African snails, which means the African snails had already been imported.
So there is no simple answer for what happened to the snails immediately after the failed armadillo incident. However, over the years due to loss of habitat and predators introduced into the region, the various species of snails in Guam—and across the Pacific—have declined to the point of extinction or near extinction. And as often happens, the tide turned. Although seen as a pest in the mid-twentieth century, their rapid disappearance eventually led to Guam’s “Save Our Snails” campaign, begun in 2016.
These are the two Giant African Snail Shells given to me while I was in Guam.
FYI: These shells are about 2″ long by 1″ wide.
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