Another Hawaiian Extinction

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

George, the last Achatinella apexfulva land snail in Hawaii, as well as on planet Earth died on New Years Day, at 14 years old, an impressively long life for a snail. Held in captivity by Hawaii DLNR, restrained in a plastic tray, one wonders, would George have preferred life in the wild? Instead of being trapped, waiting day after day, the minutes slinking away at a snail-like pace, he&she* might instead have enjoyed the spirit of adventure, a quest, waking up** every day with the hope of finding another of his&her* kind. Something to look forward to. Now, like the Menehune, George leaves us here in the islands a little poorer for our collective loss.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/goodbye-geor...1831519639

* he&she was an hermaphrodite
** an uninvestigated assumption that snails sleep

[Midnight Rambler]

They do sleep, at least in some sense - they're sensitive to drying out, so they pull into their shells and seal it to a leaf during the day, and only come out walking at night.

Also, he probably would have enjoyed being in the wild more, but unfortunately also almost certainly would have been eaten years ago like all the others in his species were.