Land snails on a frankincense tree. These snails are aestivating, which is a survival strategy of lying dormant during the hot summer months. Ninety p

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Land snails on a frankincense tree. These snails are aestivating, which is a survival strategy of lying dormant during the hot summer months. Ninety percent of the land snails that live on the islands of the Socotran archipelago, where these snails were photographed, are endemic, meaning that they are found nowhere else. Socotra is located in the Indian Ocean at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, 340 kilometres (km) from mainland Yemen and 250km from the coast of Somalia. Its isolation has led to the evolution of a unique flora and fauna.

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Size: 3411px × 5124px
Photo credit: © DICCON ALEXANDER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: aestivating, aestivation, animal, botanical, botany, colonial, colony, dormancy, dormant, ecology, ecosystem, endemic, endemism, frankincense, gregarious, invertebrates, island, land, mollusc, mollusca, nature, plant, snail, snails, socotra, soqotra, tree, unique, wildlife, yemen, yemeni, zoological, zoology