Ecological characteristics for locating snails in the wild

Abstract

The survey of the ecological status of the snails was carried out within Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, and it’s environs. The study covers four areas: forested, cultivated, swampy and rocky areas. A transect of 2 Km was laid in each study area. Each transect were later divided into eight equal quadrats. Three species of snails were encountered namely: Archatina archatina, Archachatina marginata, Cepecea nemoralis. The results show that the best site for collection of snails is the forested areas with a record of seventy snails, followed by 43 snails in the cultivated area, 50 snails in swampy areas while 18 snails were found in the rocky areas.  Forested areas also have the best sites for collection of small size snails (33) and medium size snails (32) respectively. At the end of the seasons, Archatina archatina was the species with the highest number of 48 snails Cepacea nemoralis was found abundantly in swampy areas (19 snails). The collection of Cepacea nemoralis was rare in other areas except rocky area which recorded only one snail. It was also observed that snails are abundant and likely to be found in the forested area due to the conducive ecological parameters prevalent within the area such as high volume of leave litters, loamy soil, dense vegetation tree of different kinds and also cool environment that provides physiological comfort for the animals. The occurrence of snails in cultivated areas was also very minimal. This may be due to human disturbance through agricultural activities while rocky area recorded the lowest number of snails.