Experts are on a mission to save some weirdly hairy German snails

If you go down to the Thames today you might find a nice surprise – a hairy snail.

A special project has been launched to save one of the UK’s most endangered and strangest molluscs.

Conservationists are carrying out a series of surveys to better understand the rare German hairy snails which can be found across London.

The finger-sized species, so named because of the tiny hairs on its shell which enable it to stick to surfaces, can be found in small patches along the Thames river.

A team led by Citizen Zoo and Zoological Society of London has been searching sites in Newham, Richmond upon Thames and Barnet to find and identify examples of the mollusc.

The snails are listed as a priority species for conservation in London’s biodiversity plan.

Although only first recorded in the UK in