Although maintaining mountain chickens in captivity is currently very
important it is even more important to see how they are coping in the wild. As
I mentioned previously numbers of mountain chickens have dropped massively over
the last few years and Durrell has been carrying out surveys in Montserrat for
them.
To look for them we survey along streams known locally as ghauts (pronounced
“guts”). This is done at night when mountain chickens are most active. When
surveying for them you have to walk carefully and slowly to try and avoid
disturbing them and look out for them in the torch light. Like many nocturnal
animals their eyes shine when a caught in the torch light. Unfortunately in
Montserrat mountain chickens are now only found in one ghaut, called Fairy Walk
and there are only about 5 individuals left!
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| Setting up a survey in one of the ghauts (Photo: G. Garcia/Durrell) |
In addition to looking for wild mountain chickens we have been
releasing some of the captive individuals back into Montserrat. Even though
chytrid is still present these releases allow us to trial treatment techniques
and investigate how mountain chickens and the disease interact, where the frogs
go, how they live etc. This is one of the very first projects anywhere in the
world to study amphibians in the wild with chytrid and the information we get
will be vital in trying to find a cure.
So how do you track a frog? By radio! Before the frogs are released
into the wild each one has a small radio transmitter implanted under the skin
by a trained vet. These radio transmitters send out a signal that can be picked
up by an antenna and will lead you straight to the frog. Sounds easy and it
would be if it was flat and open countryside. But Montserrat is very hilly with
steep, rocky ridges and valleys and lots of trees. This makes finding a signal
and therefore the frogs very difficult.
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| Radio tracking mountain chickens (Photo: S-L Adams) |
The team go out four or five nights a week to radio track the frogs
spending about six hours a night walking around the forests - sometimes with no
success! However that makes finding one even more satisfying. When a frog is
found a device reads the unique PIT tag number to identify that individual
frog. It is weighed and measured, checked for signs of disease, take swabs to test for chytrid and mark its position using a GPS. All this information gives us useful data on
how the frogs are surviving and where they are going, which helps us plan the
best ways to conserve them.
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| Measuring a found mountain chicken (Photo: S-L Adams) |
Whilst it is tiring walking up and down the steep slopes in the middle of the night, it is also great fun at times especially when you find a frog. Still the day off at the end of week is most welcome for the team!
How hard is it to disturb the frogs so that they don't become afraid and try to avoid you?
ReplyDeleteGood questions. Despite being so big it can sometimes be difficult to see them as their colouration is designed to act as camouflage. Even harder if they are sitting under the water.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to try and not disturb them before you can catch them as they can jump very far and quickly. You basically have to be sneaky! Walking slowly and carefully up to them, in which case they tend just to sit there relying on their camouflage. When you are close you have to be quick to grab them before they leap off!
You said there were only about 5 mountain chickens left in the wild, so (depending how many you have managed to breed in captivity, how many is that by the way?) would- and i know this sounds terrible- letting them live out the rest of thier lives, with or without the disease, until they were all gone. They might take the disease with them, and then you could release the healthy ones and there would be no problem... Or could the disease be something in their environment, in which case how adaptable are the frogs?
ReplyDeleteYep, there are 5 mountain chickens left in Montserrat and maybe 100 or so left in Dominica. when they do die the disease will not go with them. The disease will still be present in the tree frogs and cane toads on Montserrat so will spread to the mountain chickens. Chytrid also survives outside of amphibians in water and soil as long as it is moist enough.
ReplyDeleteThe frogs do appear to be adaptable in some way - those 5 in Montserrat have survived for some reason - maybe they are just naturally more immune. In Dominica around 100 (we don't know the exact number) have survived and are breeding in the wild. Again why these ones survived and the others did not is a mystery and is something we are researching. It could prove to be a very important discovery not just for the mountain chickens but for frogs elsewhere in the world affected by chytrid.
How big can they grow up to?
ReplyDeleteThey can grow up to around 20cm from snout to vent (backside). Females tend to be slightly larger and can weigh as much as 600 or 700g
ReplyDelete