Grade 4 · Unit 2: Living things and environments

A habitat for snails

Where would you live if you were a snail?

A garden snail with its shell, foot and tentacles.

Meet the snail

A snail has a soft body and a hard, coiled shell. It moves on one big, muscular foot and leaves a trail of slime. It has two pairs of tentacles. Its eyes are at the tips of the long ones.

A snail scrapes its food with a tongue covered in thousands of tiny teeth. It eats leaves, fungi and rotting plants.

Damp and dark

Snails need a damp, shady habitat. In hot, dry weather their soft bodies would dry out. They hide under leaves, logs and stones in the day and come out at night or after rain.

In very dry weather, a snail seals the opening of its shell with a layer of dried slime and waits for rain.

Testing what snails like

You can test where snails like to be with a choice chamber. Make one side damp and one side dry, or one side dark and one side light. Put snails in the middle and count where they are after 15 minutes.

A good investigation uses several snails, not just one, because one snail might behave differently from the others.

Caring for animals

Treat animals in investigations with care. Handle snails gently, keep them damp and give them leaves to eat. Return them to the place you found them when you have finished.

Scientists who study wild animals follow rules: disturb them as little as possible, keep them safe and comfortable, and return them quickly.

What I learnt