Hello my name is Jeff and I work for Durrell as their Amphibian
Programme Officer. I am based in the City of Bath and my job means I am
responsible for developing and looking after all of Durrell’s amphibian
projects around the world.
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| Me on a raft (Photo: Jeff Dawson) |
I have been working at Durrell since July last year before which I have
lived and worked in a number of countries around the world including
Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and Montserrat. By coincidence, one of my projects
with Durrell and the species I am going to tell you about is from Montserrat -
the mountain chicken!
Now I know with that name it sounds like a bird but it is in fact a
frog … but not just any frog, it is the second largest frog in the world.
Females are larger than males and can reach lengths of over 20cm and weigh over
700g! Much bigger than the frogs you or I would find in our garden ponds. They
have very powerful hind legs and can jump over 2m in a single leap ... that's the height of a tall man! It is due
to these meaty hind legs that it got its name mountain chicken as they were a
popular food dish with local people that apparently tasted a bit like chicken.
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| Mountain chicken, Montserrat (Photo: Jeff Dawson) |
The mountain chicken is only found on two islands in the Eastern Caribbean
- Montserrat and Dominica. It used to be widespread over both islands, commonly
occurring in peoples back gardens but is now only found around streams in
forest or other dense vegetation. It is nocturnal, meaning it is active at
night and spends the daytime resting in holes or rock crevices.
Like all amphibians the mountain chicken is carnivorous and a pretty
unfussy eater, eating anything it can fit in its mouth. This includes insects,
snails, tarantulas and even small lizards and snakes. It is a sit-and-wait or
ambush predator. This means it does not chase down its food rather it uses its
colouration as excellent camouflage to wait motionless until dinner comes
walking or crawling past. As both Montserrat and Dominica have no native land mammals
the mountain chicken is a top land predator on both islands and therefore a very
important part of the food web.
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| Tarantula for tea! (Photo: SL Adams/Durrell) |
Unlike frogs we have in Britain the mountain chicken does not lay eggs
in water. Instead the female makes a foam nest in a burrow in which the
tadpoles develop. Both the female and male take turns guarding the nest from
predators. The female only produces one fertile nest a year of between 25 and 60
froglets which is very low reproductive rate for a frog. This is more similar
to birds than other frogs so the mountain chicken is really a bit more like a
bird like than just its name!
However, the mountain chicken is also one of the rarest frogs in the
world with perhaps less than 100 left in the wild. It is listed as Critically
Endangered which means that it is very close to going extinct, just like the dodo
and dinosaurs, unless conservationists like myself can find a way to save it. There
are a number of threats facing it but the main one is a lethal fungal disease
that is commonly called chytrid. This is a fungus that infects the skin of
amphibians and can cause mass die offs in species, like the mountain chicken. I’ll
tell you more about this and why our work on it is so important in my next blog.
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| Mother guarding her tadpoles in nest (Photo: G Garcia) |
Its sounds like a silly question, but is the word,'froglets' a technical term?
ReplyDeleteIts sounds like a silly question, but is the word,'froglets' a technical term?
ReplyDeleteThere are never any silly questions! Froglet isn't a technical term but it is an actual word. Most frogs have multiple life stages starting as eggs then into tadpoles. The term froglet is commonly used for frogs that have recently transformed from tadpoles into frogs but are not yet adult sized.
ReplyDeleteYeah it is really weird but probably wouldn't make good pancakes! The nest is made out of a substance that the female frog secretes and 'whipped' up into a foam. After about 24hrs a 'skin' forms over the foam nest that is strong enough to allow the female to sit on it without crushing it..
ReplyDeleteHi Jeff,
ReplyDeleteMy class would like to know if there is any specific equipment you need that you would buy if you won the £500.
Please let us know!
Miss Howell
Hi, what do you do with the cotton buds once you've swabbed the frogs?
ReplyDeleteAnd if you send them somewhere where is that? And what do they do with the buds?
ReplyDeleteHi Miss Howell. When you work in the tropics there is always equipment that needs replacing as high humidity and electronics don't mix well! What that is depends on needs at the time as you can never predict when something goes wrong so the money could be very useful. Some examples are PIT tag readers - these are the devices that scan the small implants under the frogs skin so that we can individually ID them. GPS units - these are very important for field work as it allows us to mark positions of frogs and create maps to show how far they are moving etc. Of course surgical gloves for handling frogs - we use lots and lots and lots of gloves!
ReplyDeleteOnce the frogs are swabbed the swabs are put into individual tubes and then kept cool in a cool box or fridge till they can get sent off. The swabs get sent to labs at the Institute of Zoology at London Zoo where scientists test them for chytrid. This is done using a technique called PCR (stands for polymerase chain reaction) which extracts the DNA from the swab and checks it against the chytrid DNA and requires specialist and very expensive equipment.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you do with the money and how are they critically endangered ?
ReplyDeleteCindy p
Does the Mountain Chicken kill animals?
ReplyDeleteWhat type of animals?
Melissa C
Hi Cindy. The mountain chicken is classified as Critically Endangered as its population has decreased by over 90% over the last 12 years mainly due to the impacts of chytrid. We are doing another release of mountain chickens this year so some of the money will go towards bringing Machel, a young Dominican over to Montserrat so that he can learn how to do it and radio track them. Then he can go back to Dominica and pass on that knowledge to others there. Of course, if we have any equipment break it will also help towards that!
ReplyDeleteHi Melissa. Like all amphibians mountain chickens are carnivorous, meaning they prey on other animals. Also like most amphibians they are pretty unfussy eaters eating anything they can fit in their mouth. They have been recorded eating crickets, insects, tarantulas, centipedes, millipedes and even small lizards and snakes.
ReplyDeleteHi, Um, i was just wondering how many Mountain Chickens are actually left in the wild? If you don't know could you guesstimate? Also What is their habitat like, is it a forest, a desert (doubt it'll be a desert!), a swamp or a lake..E.t.c...?
ReplyDeleteElizabeth V
Hi Elizabeth. It is a guestimate on the numbers left in the wild - on Montserrat there may only be 4 or 5 (excluding the ones released), though they did hear a second male calling the other day which is really exciting! On Dominica maybe 100 or so. So not many at all.
ReplyDeleteOn Montserrat they used to be found all over but now just in a small area of the native forest. This is what is called mesic forest - wet, moist forest with big trees, ferns. It is very steep with lots of boulders along the streams where the frogs like to hide out. On Dominica for some reason the frogs tend to be found more in disturbed areas - areas where the forest has been cut down a long time ago and regrown with smaller trees, bushes etc.