Archachatina bicarinata

[brunni]

Archachatina bicarinata (Bruguiere, 1792) is a large, uncommon snail endemic ( living only ) on the islands of Sao Tome & Principe in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa. It is large and the shell length can exceed 14 cms.
The shell is always sinistral ( reverse-coiled).
Few photos are available of the live animal so thanks to Cesar Garcia for posting these pics to ARKive.
www.arkive.org/archachatina/archachatina-bicarinata/image-G123360.html

[brunni]

More pics on A. bicarinata and some alarming information !
news.mongabay.com/2010/0408-hance_fs_archachatinabicarinata.html
......the snail is in alarming decline largely from harvesting for food. The species also requires primary rainforest to survive, so habitat loss has an acute affect ... Due to these impacts, the IUCN Red List has classified the species as Vulnerable.
journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7467960
We therefore recommend that immediate action be taken to prevent its imminent extinction on Príncipe. The collection of A. bicarinata from protected areas should be banned, as should commercial harvesting and sales.

[brunni]

A good photo of A. bicarinata with extended animal can be found in
www.flickr.com/
Enter "Archachatina bicarinata" in the search field top right and click on the photo of ricardo7.
This is the direct link to that pic but (for me anyway) it does not work from within the Forum
www.flickr.com/photos/29147865@N00/2558809828/
;D