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The Funny Banana Eater

12 January 2008

The picture shows a garden snail feeding on a banana peel, following rain, on 3 January 2008.
Photo by Aymen Ibrahem, Senior Astronomy Specialist

On 3 January 2008, a rainstorm occurred in Alexandria, Egypt. BA Senior Astronomy Specialist, Aymen Ibrahem, recorded the stages of the storm, and also took numerous interesting images of garden snails, nocturnal animals that may be active during rains.

“I enjoy observing the amazing behavior of garden snails,” said Ibrahem. “These slow-moving herbivores play breathtaking acrobats, while thriving to reach plant leaves! ”
In one of Ibrahem’s photos, a large garden snail feeds on a banana peel. Interestingly, there were also tiny, recently hatched snails around the far larger adult. The pictures show the large range of garden snail sizes.

“When I spotted a snail crawling toward the banana peel, I began taking pictures, and recording movies, ” said Ibrahem. “At a high zoom level, I was able to image diminutive snails gliding on the peal. One of them climbed the shell of the adult snail. In previous other cases, I observed snails feeding on peanut shells, carrots, and orange peels. That was very interesting!”

Some of Ibrahem’s images are presented in the picture gallery below.

Picture Gallery

Fig (1)
Snail Approaches Banana Peel
Photo by Aymen Ibrahem, Senior Astronomy Specialist

Fig (2)
Family Picture
The photo demonstrates the amazing range in snail sizes. A tiny garden snail (arrowed) is visible to the right of the far larger adult snail.
Photo by Aymen Ibrahem, Senior Astronomy Specialist

Fig (3)
This is an enlargement of Fig (2)
Photo by Aymen Ibrahem, Senior Astronomy Specialist

Fig (4)
The picture shows a large adult snail, and two tiny snails (arrowed). One of the tiny snails is actually climbing the shell of the adult.
Photo by Aymen Ibrahem, Senior Astronomy Specialist

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