Snail sex (click the image for the full-resolution version)!
A lovely shot from the mostly unnarrated documentary, Microcosmos. A great movie, even without taking the above scene into account. 😉
micah.cowan.name/blog/
The random ramblings of Micah Cowan. Programmer, musician, typesetting enthusiast, gamer…
that looks very unusual. it looks like one giant snail with 2 shells! they are very pretty snails. it looks gross and very very very very very very very weird.
Luv y’all from our home town Texas!
Pingback: micah.cowan.name » Boring Web Statistics
This is very wierd. But hey, how else are they supposed to stay unextinct?!? I was just at this site trying to find a picture for my homework and i find two snails doin it!
It seems a bit weird to see snails doing that,but it is for the good of nature to breed as much snails as possible.I am 11,and Daniel is 7,but at these ages,we still understand the course of nature and successful breeding programmes,for garden ‘pests’.
Hi Amy and Daniel, welcome! Glad you liked the post.
Microcosmos is a very good documentary on insects and other small animals (I like documentaries about bugs). I watched it with my 8-year-old daughter Joy, and 5-year-old son David.
Another very good movie like it is “Life in the Undergrowth”, which was a documentary series, and is available on DVD (all on one disc, I think). I rented both of those through Netflix.
Odd. And i thought snails are genderless!
Ah, but they are genderless. Just not genital-less (they have both sets!).
we r 11 and we think its weird but we no it has 2 happen the 2 survive and
in the photo it looks like their kissing. Does both of their sets link? as in they put both theirs in the other.If u see wat we mean.
do they hump? we doubt they can we no fire “love arrows” in 2 each other but how do they chose how they want? we r 13 and 12 1/2
Well, they don’t “hump”. It pretty much looks like full-body kissing, and it’s actually kind of beautiful, if you forget for a moment that they’re pretty much made out of slime. You should really rent the movie, it’s one of the best documentaries on tiny animals I’ve seen.
If you haven’t seen it yet, I also recommend “March of the Penguins”, which features some very passionate and intimate love scenes between penguins (and very tasteful, no unmentionables are shown). Plus, Morgan Freeman narrates, and you can’t beat that.
I’m not sure whether there’s mutual insertion, but I don’t think so. I don’t really know all that much about snails. I think leeches do. I believe leeches are also capable of “mating” with themselves, but prefer to mate with a partner.
great picture, but in response to the above comment, you really shouldn’t humanise animal acts as being ‘love’ when the animals are just displaying animal behaviour.
very often penguin chicks die. if a chick is abandoned or loses its mother the mother penguins whose own chicks have died will chase a lone/abandoned chick, and in the chase/competition the female peguins will most often crush the lone chick to death as they fight for it. now do you think penguins feel love??
Anyone who thinks that all animals are incapable of actual, genuine love, has spent very little time observing them (excluding less-advanced ones, including chickens and guinea pigs, I think). In particular, if you haven’t seen the movie I referred to, you really have no place to presume. If you have seen it, then I’m really at a loss as to how you could choose to call it anything but love.
And anyone who thinks that calloused behaviors, even habitual such behaviors, are limited to the animal kingdom, hasn’t spent much time observing humans, either.
Aside from those, I have to point out that I prefer not to take for granted anything told to me without any references to back it up; one accepts far too many lies that way. I also feel the need to point out that just because the chick was accidentally crushed, does not imply that it was unloved. Humans very frequently do unintended damage to those they love, often because of love.
Not to mention, of course, that to imply that all animals are incapable of love, is to imply that humans (being animals) are also incapable of love. But then, I’m guessing from your statement that you must believe in the special creation and sanctification of the human race…
how do you know which one is a female and which one is a male?
That’s the beauty of snails… they’re both both!
Snails are one of the most loved creatures by me. I don’t know why, but I love these wonderful things, which have such an innocent face when they look at you so quietly and time stops……. They are just there and a rare person notices or likes them, that makes them sooo special and innocent again… Ugh my snailies. Sometimes I really miss seeing them so I go out on a rainy summer day and collect several, give them one of their favourite meal, which is a cucumber and just observe them…. tens of mins….I could feel their hearbeat, I could see how they fall asleep, how the muscles of their eyes get loose and they drop them slowly until they take them in, closing their eyes… I see how they breathe, how they do their excretion business, how they give each other privacy, how they live in harmony and how they reproduce and lay eggs. Even how they die. Oh my dear snailies…
I think they’re fighting …. snails are hermaphrodites..
Yes, they’re hermaphrodites. Not sure why you think that means they’re fighting. Probably, it’s because you think the word means something other than it does.
Wow.. thats urm.. interesting. do they both kinda do both? Give AND recieve? If you get what I mean. Lol
Sarah x
I’m not an expert on snails, but that seems to be the case from what I can tell. Apparently they exchange seed with each other.
My teachers told me snails were hermophrodites, Im confused now. why they are doing this beutiful task.
Yes, but do you know what a hermaphrodite is?
A hermaphrodite isn’t really “no sex”, it’s more like both sexes. Snails have both the seed and the eggs, and (apparently) swap seed during mating.
The word “hermaphrodite” comes from the names of the male and female gods of love in Greek mythology: Hermes and Aphrodite.
Hey ppl!!
I was lookin for a pic of snails here for ma homework and there was 2 massive snails doin it but they’re savin there specie so go right ahead!
Toodles!
wow. i really dont like snails…and to see this…
i just really dont like snails…once, i saw a big banana slug on somebody’s arm…
So….if im getting this right, BOTH snails could get pregnant after this love affair?
Yup, that’s my understanding.
That is a very beautiful picture. Thank you for posting it. I also love the comments from all the young people willing to forgive the snails for doing something so “weird” and disgusting, it made my day.
BTW Those two snails are definitely in love.
i thought that snails were hermraphrodites meaning they are both sexes and i just looked at a diagram and they have both bits -pns & vgna
ohh well
DISTURBING PICTURE AT TOP OF SCREEN – lol
RIP. speedy, fizz & the little 1 i always forget the name of
i have 2 pet giant african land snails coz we had them in my old class
ok bi
To me it does not make sense because y do humans do it and imagen a snail NASTY i would never want to see that
hi my name is bob and i fancy jill and i have a snail called tot and a female snail called dot . ths is cool
Saying that animals are incapable of love is the height of human narcissism. Humans are also animals, whether you like it or not.
cool pitcher funny
DESTURBING SNAILS
LOL LOL LOL LOLLOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOLLOL
Wait… so they are gender less… but o.o
Ok that’s pretty creepy
But erm… natural