Wellington, New Zealand - The strange reproductive habit that once shrouded large New Zealand snails. The country's protection agency said on Wednesday that the footage of a snail laying eggs from its neck has now been captured for the first time.

The eggs that look like a little hen begin with the opening of the Powellipanta Augusta Snail, a threatening species endemic to New Zealand.

The video was filmed at a facility on the west coast of the South Island, where conservation rangers tried to save the species from extinction, and had cared for the snail population in icy containers that had been in charge of nearly two decades.

The conditions in the container mimicked the alpine weather, their only place of residence - a remote mountain they named on the west coast of the South Island, swallowed up by mining.

Lisa Flanagan of the Conservation Agency, who has worked with the creature for 12 years, said the species is still surprising.

"It is very noteworthy that we have been taking care of snails and this is the first time we have seen an egg," she said in a statement.

Like other snails, Powellipanta Augusta is also hermaphrodite, which explains how these creatures reproduce when wrapped in a hard shell. Invertebrates use genital holes on the right side of their body, under the head, and exchange sperm simultaneously with another snail, which is stored until each snail produces an egg.

It takes eight years for each snail to reach sexual maturity, and after that it lays about five eggs a year. It can take more than a year for the eggs to hatch.

"Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old," Flanagan said. "They are polar opposites to the pest garden snails we introduced to New Zealand, which is like weeds, with thousands of offspring and short lifespans each year."

Dozens of species and subspecies of the Powellipanta snail are found only in New Zealand, mainly in strong forest and meadow environments where habitat loss is threatened.

They are carnivores, like noodles, and are the largest snails in the world, with oversized, unique shells with a variety of rich earth colors and swirl-like patterns.

Powelliphanta Augusta was the center of public uprising and legal process in the early 2000s when an energy company planned to mine coal and threatened to destroy snail habitat.

About 4,000 people were evacuated and relocated from the site, while 2,000 of the refrigerated storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika were placed to ensure the species was preserved, which reproduced slowly and did not adapt well to the new habitat.

In 2011, about 800 snails died unexpectedly and the temperature control was malfunctioning.

But slow survival of the species continues: In March, the Conservation Bureau said nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs were imprisoned.