With a wave of the magic wand, the animal came uninvited.
We all know that Cuba has three treasures: cigars, classic cars, and socialism is good. But there is one animal you can only find in Cuba, they have a shape comparable to colorful classic cars, and as the number of them decreases, it is the Cuban contemporary animal art we are going to introduce today--- Cuban painted snails.
The Cuban land snail (or the painted snail scientific name Polymita picta) is a large, breathing snail belonging to the genus Polymita. Cuban painted snails live mainly in coastal environments of subtropical forests, although we have and can only see them in Cuba. They were particularly slow-moving creatures, and it was normal to stay in the same manor for six months.
©vsemart
The shells of Cuban painted snails can be up to 20 millimeters in size, and the shells still grow in a circle. They're a cool snail, like they've been drawn with a paintbrush, and photographer Bruno D'Amicis once said, "They're undoubtedly the most beautiful snails in the world." "They have circles of bright spirals of color and are different in various colors. In general, these colors are very common: pale yellow, brick red, pink, white and black, while their soft body is usually black yellow, etc.
©ainawgsd.tumblr
So like the picture above, why can a snail be colorful? This has to start with their food sources, the Cuban painted snail mainly eats lichens, mosses and fungal membranes on bark plants, and is a scavenger of the plant cowhide moss. And they prefer certain plants, such as Chrysobalanus icaco. Without snails, plants would look dirty.
In these kinds of food, there is usually a certain mineral component. After eating a certain mineral, the shell of the snail will show the color that the mineral can determine. For example, when a painted snail eats a certain food shell that is green when it is a child, and when it grows up to eat another food, the newly grown shell produces red. Like the annual rings of a tree, it reflects the trajectory of life from childhood to adulthood, and the color of the body is the resume of a Cuban painted snail.
For example, this brother, ask yourself, are you a bit partial to food?
Yellow-colored snails: "You know this, I love it." ”
I'm going to climb up step by step
Cuban painted snails usually live for up to 15 months, with breeding periods around the rainy season (August-October). Although they are hermaphrodites, they cannot mate on their own. The same kind can only be hit by shooting a calcified dart, and the winning comrade is responsible for laying eggs.
©Baracoa4u
It is precisely because Cuban painted snails are an extremely beautiful creature that Cubans often use them to make jewelry and other handicrafts. Coupled with the fact that the overseas masses are also very fond of them, their number is getting smaller and smaller. Although Cuba has begun education on animal protection and the $20 fine for trafficking in Cuban painted snails (the average Cuban salary is also $20), there is no way to stop the smuggling. Locals will sneak you to your house and take out a sack of painted snails and ask if you want to. Online, painted snails are also very popular, often in a sold-out situation.
I personally wish more breeders had tried to breed them so that they wouldn't go extinct. Thanks also to many people like biologist Norvis Hernandez who have been studying painted snails for 20 years.
©renatestrub
When it comes to Painted Cuban snails, it's hard not to compare them to Vintage car Cuba because they all have a brightly colored shell.
©cigaraficionado
In 1897, the first classic car imported into Cuba was born.
Until 1950, major automobile manufacturers used Cuba as a testing ground for new cars.
When the Cold War began in 1959, Cuba's cars were cut off from the rest of the world. It is from this point on that Cuban classic cars embarked on a self-sufficient maintenance path.
In 2016, Cuba lifted a car ban, but few Cubans can afford a foreign car.
Therefore, Cuba's classic cars are heirlooms, and running on the streets in colorful colors has become a beautiful landscape.
©freepik
It is also hoped that Cubans will pay attention to the ecological protection of Cuban painted snails as much as they do about the protection of classic cars.
In this way, in the future, we will also have the opportunity to go to the local area to enjoy them.
Animal lovers are welcome to subscribe to the Black Arts Biology Academy