King Charles paints snails to find them in forest

King Charles carefully painted a tiny endangered snail during a special visit to London Zoo, celebrating 200 years of wildlife conservation.

The monarch, patron of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), was invited to place a small purple dot on two endangered partula snails ahead of their planned return to the wild in French Polynesia later this year.

As he prepared for the unusual task, Charles smiled and admitted, "I've painted small things before, but not this," so that he would have to do it "very slowly."

The tiny splash of colour was far more than symbolic. Conservationists use the harmless markings to identify individual snails and monitor their progress once they are released into their natural habitat. 

While this year's group of snails will receive orange markings, the King's pair were given a special royal purple dot to commemorate his visit.

The Palace shared footage of the memorable moment on social media, alongside a behind-the-scenes look at the painstaking conservation work taking place at London Zoo. 

The video showed how experts carefully breed and care for the fragile partula snails, nurturing them through every stage of their lives before preparing them for release.

Once widespread across the islands of French Polynesia, partula snails were pushed to the brink of extinction after the introduction of an invasive snail species devastated their populations. Some species disappeared from the wild altogether.

The decades of dedication from ZSL conservationists and international partners, several species have been successfully bred in captivity and are now slowly returning to their native island homes.

Sharing the video, Buckingham Palace highlighted the importance of protecting even the smallest creatures and that the project is proof that "no species is too small to save."