The endangered magnificent ramshorn snail is living in the wild in North Carolina again for the first time in 20 years following the reintroduction of 2,860 of the slow-moving gastropods into a pond.

The snails had originally gone extinct in the wild due to the decline of both their wider habitat as well as the fresh water in which they live. Reintroduction, officials say, helps preserve North Carolina’s native ecosystem.

“They are a unique part of North Carolina’s natural history heritage. The original wild populations died out from degradation of natural habitats and poor water quality,” said Christian Waters, chief of the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission.

The magnificent ramshorn is endemic to the lower Cape Fear River Basin, and lived in three captive populations in North Carolina since 2004 following its extirpation from the wild, according to the wildlife commission.

On Thursday, 2,000 of the snails were introduced to a pond on NCWRC game land property in Brunswick County, North Carolina.

The other 860 had originally been introduced in October as a test, which successfully resulted in a cluster of eggs as well as newly hatched snails, the first to occur in the wild since the early 2000s.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.