Land-based Invertebrates

The Powelliphanta snail is the Gulliver of the snail world, with a local subspecies of Powellipahanta hochstetteri found in our alpine tussock backcountry – in particular the Dun Mountain and mineral belt and in some of our native forest areas. You’re more likely to see an empty shell than a live snail, but please leave them so that the calcium can be recycled by living snails.

Our giant snails are threatened by animal predators, human activity and habitat loss.

You can find out more about their specific habitat needs in ourDun Mountain Brochure.

One of the very special creatures of Nelson estuaries is the Back Beach beetle.

This beetle is considered as endangered as the katipo spider because of its rarity. Until 2018 it was only known to exist at one site in the world, the Tahunanui Back Beach estuary.

However, surveys undertaken by Nelson Nature have discovered this rare beetle also exists at Delaware Bay. The beetle is tiny (only 3 mm long) and lives in burrows in the estuarine sand. Its chief threats are from human disturbance and climate change.

Listen to Radio NZ’s conversation with DoC's threatened species Ambassador, Nicola Toki about saving the back beach beetle

Watch a Nelson Nature video - saving the Back Beach Beetle

Watch a student animation (by artist Natalia Chaplin) about the Back Beach beetle and how we can help save its habitat.