Ned the lefty snail has a 1 in 40,000 shot at a mate

In a world that swipes right for love, one lonely snail in New Zealand is looking for a match that can swipe left – and Kiwis across the country are now searching for love in the dampest of places, thanks to a magazine’s campaign.

Meet Ned, the eligible bachelor. Ned likes leafy greens, moist environments and hanging upside down on plants. And while everyone on the apps will insist they’re one in a million, Ned truly is a rarity among gastropods.

Ned has a left-spiraling shell, meaning that the distinctive, hard-coated whorl faces to the left rather than to the right, as is the case for most snails. Only about 1 in 40,000 snails have left-coiling shells, so when Giselle Clarkson came across Ned relaxing on a bit of bok choy in her garden last week in Wairarapa, on New Zealand’s North Isl