After 20 years of living only in captivity, Magnificent Ramshorn has been returned to the wild.
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission reintroduced 2,000 of the aquatic snails into a pond on NCWRC Game Lands in Brunswick County.
NCWRC’s Inland Fisheries Chief Christian Waters said they are a unique part of North Carolina’s natural history heritage.
The original wild populations died out from degradation of natural habitats and poor water quality, and the snail is endemic to the lower Cape Fear River basin – meaning they’re found nowhere else in the world.