Hunt is on to find a mate for Ned the snail with a rare left-coiled shell

A hunt has been launched in New Zealand to find a suitable mate for Ned the snail.

Ned, a common garden snail, has an uncommon anatomical problem that is ruining its love life. Its shell coils to the left, not the right, making the snail, a hermaphrodite, the one in 40,000 snails whose sex organs do not line up with those of the rest of their species.

Unless another lefty snail is found, the snail faces a lifetime of unintentional celibacy.

That dire prospect prompted a New Zealand nature lover who found the snail in her garden in August to launch a campaign to find his perfect match.

Giselle Clarkson was weeding her home vegetable patch in Wairarapa on the North Island when a snail tumbling out of the leafy greens caught her eye.

Ms Clarkson, the author and illustrator of a nature book, The Observologist, has an affection for snails and had long been on the lookout for a sinistral, or left-coiled shell.

“I knew immediately that I couldn’t just toss the snail back into the weeds with the others,” she said.

Instead, she sent a photo of the snail, pictured alongside a right-coiled gastropod as proof, to her colleagues at New Zealand Geographic.

The magazine launched a nationwide campaign to find a mate for Ned, named for the left-handed character Ned Flanders in The Simpsons. That explains the male name, although snails are hermaphrodites with sex organs on their necks and the capacity to produce both eggs and sperm.

“When you have a right-coiling snail and a left-coiling snail, they can’t slide up and get their pieces meeting in the right position,” Ms Clarkson said. “So a lefty can only mate with another lefty.”

“We’ve had lots of enthusiasm and encouragement for Ned, a lot of people who can relate and really want the best for them, as a symbol of hope for everyone who’s looking for love,” she said. “But as yet, no lefties have been forthcoming.”

Ned’s romantic woes have attracted global news coverage, but New Zealand’s strict biosecurity controls mean long-distance love probably is not on the cards.

Other left-coiled snails have gotten lucky through public campaigns to find mates before, however, so Ms Clarkson remains optimistic.

Ned probably has time on its side. Garden snails live for two to five years and his shell suggests it is about six months old, Ms Clarkson said. Still, she feels pressure to see the snail romantically fulfilled.

“I have never felt this stressed about the welfare of a common garden snail before,” she said. “I check on Ned almost obsessively.”