The chittenango ovate amber snail (COAS) is a highly endemic and endangered land snailspecies living at the edge of new york states chittenango falls

This $680,000 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Recovery Implementation (CFDA 15.657) program aims to continue, enhance, and augment the captive breeding program for the endangered Chittenango ovate amber snail (COAS). The project will enable the introduction of additional COAS snails to the wild habitat at Chittenango Falls, New York, as well as translocate snails to newly identified ecologically similar sites to work towards establishing COAS populations at additional locations. The award will also fund population monitoring at the Chittenango Falls site and any translocated sites, as well as contracting a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conservation genetics lab to study the genetic diversity of the wild and captive COAS populations. This award, which runs from May 2024 through September 2027, builds upon about 20 years of focused study and a successful captive breeding program for this highly endemic and endangered land snail species.

The single wild population ofcoas is currently undergoing a precipitous decline. COAS has been the subject of about twentyyears of focused study, including an ongoing and successful captive breeding program, whichhas served as a source of additional snails to augment the wild population, and that also serves ASA backup population in case of extinction in the wild. This project aims to continue, enhance, andaugment that captive breeding program, in order to enable introduction of additional snails to thewild site at chittenango falls, as well as to translocate snails to newly identified sites that areecologically similar to the original site, moving toward eventual establishment of COAS at atleast one of those translocation sites. Population monitoring will occur at both chittenango fallsand translocated sites. We will also contract a USFWS conservation genetics lab to helpunderstand genetic diversity in wild and captive COAS.