Save Montserrat’s rare frogs

This video is about mountain chicken frogs.

From BirdLife:

Mountain Chicken’s portrait

Wed, Jul 4, 2012

The Mountain Chicken Project, funded by the UK government’s Darwin Initiative and executed by the Department of Environment of Montserrat and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, is pleased to announce the publication of a poster and a brochure aimed at raising awareness of the Critically Endangered Mountain Chicken Leptodactylus fallax on Montserrat.

The Mountain Chicken is a terrestrial frog surviving only in small populations within the Centre Hills and Northern Forested Ghauts Important Bird Areas (IBAs) of Montserrat (where it co-occurs with the Critically Endangered Montserrat Oriole Icterus oberi), and in Morne Trois Pitons National Park (also an IBA) in Dominica. It has cultural significance for Montserratians and Dominicans but is now under threat of extinction. The frog has faced many pressures over the years including hunting, habitat loss, impact of volcanic activity, exposure to increasing populations of invasive species, such as rats and feral pigs, and decimation by the chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) that has caused the extinction of hundreds of amphibian species worldwide.

The poster’s main image shows a healthy Mountain Chicken showing its moist textured skin, coloration and markings on the hind legs – which distinguish it from the invasive Cane Toad. A series of inset pictures and accompanying text briefly describe the lifecycle of the frog, the two islands where remaining populations are still found, its diet and the effects of the deadly skin disease chytridiomycosis.

Rare tropical frogs rescued from a killer fungus in the Caribbean have produced a bumper brood in the UK: here.

Global bullfrog trade spreads deadly amphibian fungus worldwide: here.

Study finds link between global warming and frog susceptibility to fungal disease: here.

November 2013: A deadly amphibian disease chytridiomycosis has caused the extinction of Darwin’s frogs, believe scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB), Chile: here.

Related articles

• The last croak for Darwin’s frog (eurekalert.org)
• Why Has the Darwin Frog Likely Gone Extinct? (newswatch.nationalgeographic.com)
• Is Chytridiomycosis Driving Darwin’s Frogs to Extinction? (plosone.org)
• Darwin’s Frogs Croaking Thanks to Deadly Fungus (livescience.com)
• Two Species of Mouth-Brooding Frog Go Extinct (news.softpedia.com)
• Deadly, Widespread Fungus Killing Darwin’s Frogs (scienceworldreport.com)
• Darwin’s frog declared extinct after killer disease wipes out population in Chile (dailymail.co.uk)
• Researchers puzzled by deadly fungus that’s killing Darwin’s frogs (mnn.com)