1579 Snail Airmail

I was talking to a friend the other day that has problems with snails and slugs in her garden. Strange, since this person also has two cats. And those cats are always killing and dragging in all manner of disgusting dead animals.
Yet they seem to draw the predator/prey line at gastropods. This from an animal who has no problems licking it's own backside. You gotta wonder about nature sometimes. Perhaps it's just that snails offer no challenge.
If cats only knew how tough snails are. Because it turns out they're much more resilient than you'd expect. At least the Japanese tornatellides snail.
It's the snail that invented snail airmail. Yep, this snail hitchhikes rides on birds. But not in the cold outside. It hitchhikes in the bird's gut. Scientists have found out that when the bird eats a bunch of the snails, many of them survive and get excreted later in a different location. Kind of like bats poop out fruit seeds and widen the range of fruit trees.
They think the snails survive because they are small, less than a tenth of an inch, and because they tuck inside their shells and form a mucus plug to block out corrosive digestive juices.
Reminds me of my last trip on Southwest...
Then it’s a short trip through the gut, out the exit chute and plink, or splat, onto new territory, do not pass go, do not stop at baggage claim.
Snails are the originators of carryon baggage. They got their whole house on their back.
Local scientists should check and see if the Asian mud snail infecting Capitol Lake has a similar bird-hitching capability. That could be how they started their invasive ways in our waters.
One more reason to hate seagulls.
Hey.
Cats kill seagulls don't they?
America, ya gotta love it.