Vol 3 Land Resource Inventory Report - Department of Environment ...

The diverse native land snail fauna of Fiji appears to be moving in a similar direction.
Ecologically and historically the Fijian fauna is primarily connected to areas of native forest,
a fact vital to understanding that this unique fauna cannot be conserved without protection of
relatively large areas of native vegetation from land clearing and invasive species, such as
ants and predatory snails. These latter species are often accidently introduced by humanrelated
activities such as logging, cattle farming, pig hunting and the movement of crop
materials from one area to another.
Over the last 100 years the Fijian land snail fauna has been investigated by a large number of
overseas visitors and a few Fijian residents (see review by Barker, 2005). As a result of this
we now have a draft checklist of the land species present in Fiji and an associated
distributional database. Leading from this an annotated and illustrated catalogue to the Fijian
land snail fauna is currently in progress (Barker & Bouchet, in preparation). In addition to
this, collation of basic identification and biological information about Fiji‘s introduced land
snails is now underway at the University of the South Pacific (Biology Division). It is
expected that this USP project will produce fact sheets, a field guide and a web-based key to
aid quick identification of introduced species that may pose considerable threat to agricultural
trade (crop pests) and human health (parasite vectors).
A Fijian land snail distributional database was developed by Landcare New Zealand and the
Wildlife Conservation Society with the goal of using the spatial information species and
communities to assist setting reservation priorities within the Fijian archipelago, and to
determine the adequacy of environmental domain classifications as surrogates for biotic
pattern (Barker 2003 & 2005). This work contributed to the ―Priority Forests for
Conservation‖ network proposed by Olson et al. (2009). This ecological land snail work and
the distributional database need to be merged and adapted more fully into the current Fijian
government frameworks.
There is also a need for local up-skilling and more research in the areas of taxonomy, life
history and conservation biology plus strengthened development of local access to
information in usable formats.
According to Haynes (1998) land snails in Fiji are collectively referred to as ―sici vanua‖ or
―sirikoko‖. Despite several common endemic and introduced species being relatively large
(> 35 mm) there appears to be no specific Fijian names for different species. This does not
result from a lack of historical presence in the environment but could be because snails are
cryptic and predominantly nocturnal, not often being seen during daylight hours unless
actively searched for in their daytime refuges.
Land snails belong to the invertebrate animals a vast group of organisms noticeably neglected
in our estimates of biodiversity even at a global level. The term land ‗snail‘ is used in this
summary when referring to both ‗snails‘ and ‗slugs‘. ‗Snail‘ refers to a gastropod possessing
a fully developed shell, capable of housing the retracted animal. ‗Slug‘ refers to the gastropod
body form where the shell is reduced to the extent that it is no longer capable of housing the
animal. Slugs are simply snails with a reduced or absent shell.
The land snail fauna of Fiji is rich and diverse consisting of at least 245 species that cover 72
different genera and 28 families (Table 1). Among these are 37 undescribed species (Barker
2005; Barker & Bouchet, unpubl. data) but there are undoubtedly more species that await
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