Scientists in New Zealand have captured rare footage of a Mount Augustus snail laying an egg from its neck a behaviour never before filmed in this species. The critically endangered, meat-eating snail has been under conservation care since being relocated nearly 20 years ago due to coal mining threats.

Conservation ranger Lisa Flanagan was astonished to witness the event while weighing the snail. Though such reproduction is known in other land snails, it had never been observed in this one.

Theselong-lived snails can grow to golf ball size and feed on earthworms, which they consume `like spaghetti.` Their eggs take over a year to hatch. A 2011 equipment f ailure killed 800 snails, but fewer than 2,000 remain in captivity today, with some reintroduced into the wild.•