My husband and daughter found a snail, a live one, outside the house this morning. He called my nieces and nephew so they can watch the snail crawl gracefully. When the snail realized he’s being watched (technically correct because most snails are hermaphrodites), he succumb to his shell and refused to move. The kids (now with the neighbor’s kids) guarded and waited for the snail to come out of the shell. My almost 8 years old niece got so fascinated that she thought of skipping school, on a Friday. When her dad called for them, and that her leaving was clearly becoming inevitable; she turned to my husband and said, “When the snail finally comes out of his shell, please report to me”. My husband was out of choice and said yes, though he hasn’t had a slightest idea on how to report.
My husband told me about the incident and asked, “how do snails make babies?”, which is a very good question. Never in life have I quite thought of that. My best friend Google to the rescue did have the answer, and I found some amazing facts about Snails on this forum, “How do snails have babies?’.
1. They are mostly hermaphrodites.
2. They flirt for 12 hours.
3. Most lay eggs.
4. When they mate, both end up conceiving. That’s instant 2 babies.
5. They eat the egg they hatched from for calcium. Some eat their own unhatched brothers/sisters.
The world is rather big and fascinating for all of us. We even barely know it. I remembered today one of the reasons why I love being around kids. Kids talk about life forms, animals, plants, the planet and they ask questions that would force a grown-up to go back to childhood days. Kids talk about life, come to think of it, they literally do. And grown ups say they are bored and life’s complicated. 🙂
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