Swirly the snail by Ty Inc is a Beanie Baby and is at right. The snail at left is from Steiff. Snails form by far the largest group of mollusks. They belong to the class Gastropoda. They are characterized by a single shell, or valve, usually spiral in form but occassionally cap-shaped. Slugs are snails even though they have no shells. Most snails have a well-defined head with a pair of tentacles, a pair of eyes, and a mouth with jaws, liplike folds and a rasping tongue or radula.

Often active at night, snails creep about on their flat solelike foot, propelled along by a series of muscular contractions. They feed on organic debris and I know for a fact that they like dog kibble and cat kibble.

Land snails like the two plush toys shown above like to live in humid areas. They will seal their shell opening with mucus, which hardens and prevents evaporation. An individual garden snail is both male and female. Land snails secret slime as a lubricant so they can move.

They burrow into the ground in the winter and lay their eggs there.

Other Oceanarium tanks include:

Crabs | Dolphin | Eel | Fish | Harp Seal | Manatee | Manta Ray | Octopus | Oceanarium | Orca | Otter | Seahorse | Sea Lion | Sea Star | Sea Turtle | Seal | Shark | Snail | Walrus | Whale | Whale Shark