The Partula Snail Conservation Story is part of Bristol Zoo Gardens' partula snail exhibit. It is a short educational animation about saving endangered Polynesian tree snails from extinction.
In my capability as illustrator & animator I was tasked with developing an animation in close collaboration with the invertebrate keepers and the education officers, who were looking to create a video that would help engage people with the international partula snail conservation efforts.
Partula snails are native Polynesian tree snails, many species of which have become extinct due to the introduction of the carnivorous rosy wolf snail on the French Polynesian islands. Most of the few remaining species are critically endangered and rely on captive breeding programmes, which aim to reestablish populations in their native habitat.
Engaging zoo visitors with conservation is hard enough, but making them care about little brownish snails is quite a challenge. Working with the information and material I was kindly provided with, I started with developing three distinct character designs for the three species of snails involved, before blocking out an animatic and adjusting the edit after consultation with the invertebrate keepers and education officers.
As the animation runs on a loop in the invertebrates house, I added a 'snail timeline' to indicate the point in time of the story and the overall length of the video.
Find out more about the current efforts at ZSL Conservation who are this conservation project's coordinators.