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Heavy weight champion I


Heavy weight champion I
Photo Information
Copyright: AC van Dyk (Dyker) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 142 W: 0 N: 59] (170)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2006-11-12
Categories: Molluscs
Camera: Canon 300D, Sigma 70-300 DG Macro
Exposure: f/9.0, 1/200 seconds
Details: (Fill) Flash: Yes
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): !Slugfest [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2006-12-28 14:15
Viewed: 1282
Favorites: 1 [view]
Points: 40
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Giant African snail
Achatina fulica

I took this photo while on holiday at Ballito Bay on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. The shell of this specimen was about 18.5 centimetres long which place this monster mollusc in the "World Heavy Weight" category.

Class: Mollusca
Order: Eupulmonata
Family: Achatinidae

They are the largest of the terrestrial snails and are typically about 7 centimetres tall, but can grow as large as 35 centimetres (14 inches) and weigh as much as a kilogram (2.2 pounds). Their average age is about 5 to 6 years, but they can live up to 10 years. They may already be sexually mature after just 6 months, but sexual maturity normally takes 6 to 16 months, depending on weather and the availability of calcium. Some factors that affect the growth of snails are population density, stress (which can be caused by noise, light, vibration, unsanitary conditions, irregular feeding, etc.), food, temperature and moisture. When it becomes too hot and dry in summer, the snail becomes inactive, seals its shell and aestivates (becomes dormant) until cooler, moister weather returns. In the wild groups of snails aestivate on tree trunks, posts, or walls. When this occurs they seal themselves to the surface so the shell opening is therefore also sealed. They are nocturnal by habit and move around less during much of the day, becoming active in the early evening.

Native to East Africa.

It is considered to be one of the most damaging land snails in the world. It has a voracious appetite and has been recorded as attacking over 500 different kinds of plants. They are included in the IUCN list of the world’s worst 100 invasive organisms.

They are hermaphrodites meaning that they are both male and female at the same time. Some snails will act as a male one time and a female another time, while others will play both roles simultaneously. Snails can often spend hours courting before they actually lay eggs. After the snails have mated they can keep the sperm for up to about a year, although the eggs are usually laid within the first two weeks. After mating both the snails will lay eggs (up to 300 each). The eggs need to remain warm (about 29°C) and require moist soil. If the conditions are right they will usually hatch within five days. The success of the eggs depends on the temperature, humidity, and composition, etc of the soil. The moisture of the soil should be around 80%. A quite high percentage of snails will die after breeding, as they can lose significant weight after laying eggs.

Feeds on plant matter and carrion. May also eat whitewash off walls to obtain calcium for shell construction.

The Triclad flatworm (Platydemus manokwari), first described from New Guinea in 1963, is a successful predator of the giant African snail.
manyee, pretoras, Adanac, loot, Janice, RAP, claudine, uleko, Gudule, scottevers7, peter_stoeckl, Aaltjie, Shoot_Score, Miss_Piggy, rcrick has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

AC,

Welcome to Treknature, and nice job with your first post. An impression photo and a great description. I look forward to further posts from wonderful South Africa.

ouaw tres belle macro bravo dyker

  • Great 
  • manyee Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3094 W: 234 N: 5897] (19892)
  • [2006-12-28 23:54]

A warm welcome to TN, AC.
What an amazing snail!
I don't think I have ever seen one of these, even in a picture.
Excellent details in terms of sharpness and light.
Great POV as well.
The notes are very informative.
Thank you for sharing.
ManYee

  • Great 
  • Adanac Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1098 W: 1 N: 4462] (14976)
  • [2006-12-29 10:55]

Hello AC,
First your capture of this snail is very crisp with sharp details. Secondly welcome to TrekNature hope to see many more captures from your part of the world. Thanks for sharing with us.
Rick

  • Great 
  • marjan Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 483 W: 10 N: 362] (2631)
  • [2006-12-29 11:23]

very good macrpo with wondeful coloures.
Marjan

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  • loot Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5732 W: 606 N: 3481] (9351)
  • [2006-12-29 15:31]

Hi AC

A warm welcome to TN and I hope we will still see many photos of this quality from your lens. Thanks for visiting my humble portfolio and for the kind comments expressed.

This snail of yours is absolutely fantabulous. We have these guys here in Zululand as well and they grow so big that when you encounter one in the road you actually drive around it out of fear that it might cause damage to your car. I just love your notes for the interesting information you shared with us. I want to applaud you for that. Keep up this quality and you will soon find out what a valuable contribution you are making towards this lovely site.

Your macro of the mollusc is just great. The composition is perfect with this tight crop and frontal POV (point of view). I never realised these guys have actually 4 eyes (or antennae) or whatever one calls those things. The colours are well saturated and the details are brilliant. The f/9 aperture really stretched the focus range and you captured lovely details where it matters the most. You also handled the exposure very well especially with the fill-in flash. Many people are of the opinion that a fill-in flash renders the photo flat, but you have shown perfectly that it is not necessarily the case.

Excellent work with this first post and TFS (thanks for sharing).
Friendly regards
Loot

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  • Janice Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3462 W: 145 N: 5916] (17728)
  • [2006-12-29 15:56]

Hi there AC, welcome to TN and what a monster this snail is! 18.5cm - that is HUGE! It would feed a bird for a week.
Well composed and good sharpness too. And your notes are very interesting to read too. Thank you for sharing
Janice

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  • RAP Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2524 W: 345 N: 2373] (7405)
  • [2006-12-29 16:55]

Bienvenido a TN AC... una gran macro para tu primera presentación, con gran agudeza y foco mostrando buenos detalles de este molusco, sin grandes reflejos a pesar del uso del flash.
Me gusta el punto de vista captado, en combinación con el recorte elegido.
Los colores son intensos pero no se perciben saturados innecesariamente.
Excelente captura, gracias por publicarla.
Mis mejores deseos para el 2007... Ricardo

Welcome to TN AC... a great macro for your first presentation, with great sharpness and focus showing good details of this mollusc, without big reflections in spite of the use of the flash.
I like the captured point of view, in combination with the elected cropping.
The colors are intense but they are not perceived saturated unnecessarily.
Excellent capture, thank you for posting.
My best wishes for 2007... Ricardo

  • Great 
  • milas Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Note Writer [C: 200 W: 0 N: 10] (173)
  • [2006-12-30 4:24]

selam dyker;
güzel bir makro çekim tebrikler selamlar

  • Great 
  • uleko Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2544 W: 170 N: 7738] (24487)
  • [2006-12-30 8:25]

Hello AC,
Very impressive close-up of this snail in his house showing sharp details. What an incredible giant! Would be interesting to see the whole snail too in his environment to see the size properly.
Welcome to TN and best wishes for 2007, Ulla

Hello DC,
Welcome to TN!

This is a very impressive post about a creature that I didn't know or even heard about. I enjoyed ready those interesting notes about this unique specie. This is a monster :-) I never thought that a snail could weight 2.2 pounds!

The picture is wonderful with excellent POV, details, composition and DOF. I wish I could see the whole Mollusc soon? Thanks for this great picture. My best wishes for this New Year,
Claudine

  • Great 
  • Gudule Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor [C: 248 W: 11 N: 288] (1204)
  • [2006-12-30 10:57]

Hi AC,

What I may write furthermore that what is mentioned higher? I am subjected by the quality of your photo. Very impressed. And also, by the note which you added concerning this huge snail. Bravo.

Hi AC,
Welcome to Trek Nature! This is a superb first post. Your fill flash exposure did well here to bring out the colors and textures in the snail and his shell. Tack sharp detail, and rich color saturation from a spot on exposure. You also have some great supporting notes to help educate me on this species. Looking forward to seeing many more.
Happy New Year,
Scott

Hello AC,
dynamical frontal approach that does a good job to demonstrate the giant dimensions of that snail.
Pleasantly warm colours, really good depth of field, well chosen parts in focus, well composed image.
Perfect notes. Thank you.
And welcome to TN!
Best regards,
Peter

Hallo Dyker

My name is Aaltjie. I am a Dutchman living in South-Africa. At the moment I am visiting relatives and friends overseas.
When I saw your username, I immediately thought of Holland, and the statue of the boy with the finger in the dyke at Spaarndam. I am sure you know the story.

Anyway. I am an old man, who loves looking at beautiful pictures of nature. I would have loved to have the talent to photograph all the lovely scenes I see, but I am too old to start now. Now I have to admire all the special photos, and information placed on this website Trek Nature.

This picture is so amazing.That an ugly old, slimy snail can turn out to be such a pretty photographic model. Just shows. You are never too ugly for the lens, even if you have to become wet in the process.

A poem about a snail I found in my grand daughter poetry book.

Consider the Snail
by R. Wayne Edwards December 1996

About this Poem

Where he goes he leaves a trail.
When he goes where he shouldn't be,
His trail is there for all to see.

Our life is like the little snail,
Where we go we leave a trail.
The things we do and the things we say,
Are the trail we leave from day to day.

Thanks for sharing your notes.
Kind regards
Aaltjie

Hi AC

These realy are big snails when you get up close. The ones I'm used to encountering are the Achatina achatina down in the Eastern Cape. An interesting point is that these land snails along with wedge clams (Donax serra) are frequently found along the SA coastline in shell middens so must have been sought after by the early strandlopers (beachcombers).

The photo quality is good with great colour contrasts but in my opinion it would have been good to try and get the two main eyestalks a bit sharper with perhaps a better DOF. Not easy with a macro when these are popping in any out all the time!.

Thanks
Guy

  • Great 
  • arfer Gold Star Critiquer [C: 2731 W: 0 N: 0] (0)
  • [2007-01-30 21:51]

Hello AC

A most interesting post.That thing is huge.Excellent DOF and POV ,the details are sharp and the colours are vivid.Nicely cropped and composed in the frame.TFS

Rob

Howdy "Dyker"

Excellent shot , which I have included in my snail Theme ;)

Hallo AC
I think you better have a look in the swimming pool. There might be a possibility that your creepy crawly has escaped. A wonderful post. The details are crisp clear and razor sharp. Colour, POV and composition are excellent. Such a huge snail and just look at the enormous suckers and the Alien like antennas. It was a good idea to photograph this snail. It is a splendid presentation. Although slimy and whimsical, it was a real pleasure to look at. Thanks for sharing.
Kind regards
Anna
ps. Very interesting note.

Hi A.C,
First time I've seen you work, and welcome to T.N, thanks for the feedback, this is a very impressive close up of a Giant African snail, amazing detail, excellent light, stunning colours, and very informative note, all the best Cheers Rick :)
Points will come when I find my similes :o) (what can I say my work Pc is having a melt down)

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