What animals eat snails?

Answer 1

Animals that eat snails can be found in almost every systematic group. Snails usually are quite defenceless and so are welcome sources of protein to many animals. Even those that usually do not eat snails will do so in times of meagre food supply. That is also true for man: It seems hard to imagine, that, while today snails are an expensive delicacy for few, during the Thirty Years' War farmers ate snails, because they had nothing else to eat.

Against larger insects, this mucus defence does not help. Especially carnivorous beetles, such as carabids (Carabidae) and fireflies (Lampyridae) (among the latter especially the larvae) are used to attacking and eating snails.

Not only insects eat snails, also many arachnids: Among the harvestmen (Opiliones) there are species (Ischyropsalis hellwigi) that almost exclusively live on snails.

There are snail eaters in all vertebrate classes. Among the amphibians mainly larger frogs, but especially toads eat snails, such as the common toad (Bufo bufo). That is why the latter should be a very welcome guest in every garden: It does not even hesitate to eat the large slugs, whose slime makes them inedible to other animals. Also the fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) and its black relative, the alpine salamander (Salamandra atra) eat small slugs and snails. The fire salamander even lurks for its prey on mushrooms these visit to eat.

Among reptiles, mainly small non venomous species also eat snails, for example the European blindworm (Anguis fragilis) and the Australian snail skink (Tiliqua gerrardii), a small lizard. Among snakes there are for example certain canopy snakes from Costa Rica (the snake displayed is Dipsas bicolor).

Songbirds usually also eat snails, if their size allows them to do so. The song thrush (Turdus merula) has solved the problem how to crush a snail's shell by throwing them on a suitable hard stone. Usually it uses the same stone ever and ever again, which is why there many broken snail shells can be found. Such a stone is then called a thrush anvil. On the other hand, snails have adapted to this by a most uncommon form of camouflage - depending on vegetation cover and ground colour, banded snails can be yellow or red, banded or unbanded, always those camouflaged best are selected to survive. Next to song birds, also fowl and ducks (for example the so-called runner ducks) eat snails. Stork, heron and other birds also will not leave a tasty snail aside.
Among mammals, especially insectivores also will eat snails, but also some carnivores will fatten their menu with a snail. Especially fond of snails and also slugs are hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus), moles (Talpa europaea) and shrews. The hedgehog has a special method to rid slugs of their sticky slime: It rolls them in earth and then cleans them with its paws.

Answer 2

One time I bought an apple snail for my aquarium. I forgot that African cichlids fish like escargo. The next week, the snail was only a shell of himself.

Answer 3

Hedgehogs, foxes, fish (water snails).

Answer 4

I eat snails, their yummy!

Answer 5

DOGS, CATS, RACCOONS WILL ALL EAT SNAILS. BUT IF YOU REALLY WANT THEN ALL GONE... CALL THE NEIGHBORHOOD FRENCH GUY OVER.

Answer 6

a large number of them. right it is a few music thrushes, mistle thrushes, redwings, floor beetles, hedgehogs, uncomplicated shrew, parasitic nematode, marsh flies, slow worms, centipede, uncomplicated newt, Bacillus Thurungiensis, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, starlings, blackbirds, fieldfare, gulls, owls, robins, toads, moles, uncomplicated lizard, foxes, mice, rats, testacella carnivorous slugs and glow worms

Answer 7

The social animal called


"HUMAN"

Answer 8

errms birds