Hi again. Hopefully now you know more about the amazing mountain
chicken and the reasons why it is so threatened. Now to tell you some of the
main things we have been doing to help save it from extinction. As you read
last time there is no cure yet known for chytrid so one of the first things we
had to do was rescue mountain chickens from the wild on Montserrat. In 2009,
when chytrid was discovered on Montserrat an emergency rescue mission was
undertaken which took 50 frogs to Jersey and was so important it made the news
across the UK: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr/21/wildlife-conservation
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| Mountain chickens being rescued from Montserrat (Photo: G. Garcia/Durrell) |
The frogs were flown over to the UK and then Jersey packed in boxes. In Jersey Durrell started to breed them and sent some of the frogs to
other zoos in London, Chester and Sweden. When keeping the frogs in captivity they have to be kept in ‘bio-secure’ conditions. This effectively means they are in quarantine and is designed to prevent any diseases getting into the frogs. When keepers go into these areas they have to change footwear, wear suits, masks and gloves to ensure they don’t bring anything in!
Looking after these frogs in
captivity is not straightforward as they are very big and eat a lot so cost a
lot of money. But keeping a captive breeding population is very important to
ensure their survival, especially when they disease is still present in the
wild. Also, Keeping them in captivity also allows us to find out things about them that would be very difficult to do in the wild such as how they breed. Knowing as much about the species as possible is very important for making decisions on how to protect them in the wild.
Follow this link to see a video and article on the alien like tadpole behaviour of the mountain chicken, first recorded at Jersey: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8185125.stm
As well as having breeding populations overseas there is also a captive
breeding centre on Dominica itself. This was set up in 2010 and is the first
amphibian breeding centre in the country. This is very important as it will
allow people living in Dominica to learn how to look after and breed mountain
chickens in captivity with the ultimate aim to release them back into the wild.
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| Mountain chickens in the Dominican captive breeding facility (Photo: S-L. Adams) |
Next blog I'll tell you about some of the research
How big a part of the Dominican ecosystem is the mountain chicken? How much of an impact would it's extinction cause?
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good question and one that is asked a lot in conservation. Ecosystems are extremely complex webs with many interlinking connections so it is sometimes difficult to disassociate individual species from them.
ReplyDeleteThe mountain chicken is a top predator on Dominica and eats a huge range and number of insects, spiders, centipedes and small vertebrates. It may therefore have a very important role in controlling the populations of some invertebrates. When numbers declined dramatically in Dominica there was an increase in the number of reports by people of increased numbers of centipedes and crickets. As well as being a predator small froglets provide a food source for other predators such as snakes so losing them would affect these other animals as well.
Ultimately we never really know the effect of losing a species till it is gone by which time it is too late to do anything about it.
At the moment there are about 69 mountain chickens in the Wildlife Park in Jersey and 36 at London Zoo. We try not to handle the mountain chickens too much in captivity except once a week or so when they are measured and weighed to see how they are getting on.
ReplyDeleteMe personally I have handled a few mountain chickens in Montserrat when the first ones were brought back to the country and also in the wild when looking for them. They are big and pretty strong so you have to have a good grip!