It is now that time of year again when the male mountain chickens are wooing their females with that wonderfully distinctive whooping sound. A sound that once was so common and almost deafening on Montserrat and now sadly it is a rarity. However, hope remains whilst we still here frogs call and there are some surviving males that are really going for it. We have a copy of the call playing on the local radio and are requesting people to let us know if they hear the sound anywhere on island. It is a nice opportunity where we really can get everyone involved.
In the meantime we are busy planting our Song meters (or frog loggers) all around the island. These audio recording devices record all sounds in the forest at set times during the night. We then use a special software which will allow us to scan for mountain chicken calls. Hopefully this will allow us to detect any surviving frogs in any far out of reach places.
A new Department of Environment intern , Thiffinie, who is currently studying in Trinidad has been out with us this week to learn how to set the frog loggers up and how to retrieve the data.
By Sarah-Louise Smith, Project Coordinator