Today was the first day of the Mountain Chicken Recovery Plan Workshop run by the Darwin Initiative Mountain Chicken Project in Montserrat. The project is now in the third and final year and we committed as part of the project proposal to developing a long-term restoration strategy for the species based on pulling together the results of everything we have learned over the past three years. In addition, the five-year Species Action Plan for the mountain chicken, which was developed in 2007 during a workshop run by the Mountain Chicken Recovery Programme (see Reports), is due for a review. Over the next four days, experts and key stakeholders will gather together to discuss the key threats and issues preventing the mountain chicken species from recovering and constructing a plan to guide our conservation efforts in the future based on our knowledge gained through working the species over the past 16 years.
The workshop began with a review of the background knowledge of the species and identifying key issues that will need to be discussed over the next few days. Project Research Officer, Lloyd Martin, began by delivering a presentation to the participants on the results of a survey he has been conducting with project partners and stakeholders over the past few months. Through his own project which he developed through the DESMAN (Diploma in Endangered Species Management course run by the Durrell Academy – www.durrell.org) Lloyd has been conducting a review of the all the conservation activities conducted on the mountain chicken over the past 16 years when work on the species first began.
Lloyd was followed by Dr. Rich Young, Head of Conservation Science at Durrell who was presenting the first preliminary results from the research conducted by the Darwin Mountain Chicken Project during the releases of captive bred mountain chickens back into the wild, the continuous monitoring of the surviving frogs in the wild and the surveys of the tree frogs which carry the fungus. Considering the large amount of data collected by the project there is much more analysis to be conducted by the PhD student Mike Hudson who will continue to work on producing more results over the next two years.
During the rest of the afternoon participants split into working groups to review the background knowledge and current status of key sections of mountain chicken work including the current status of the in situ and ex situ captive breeding programme overseas and in Dominica; monitoring and management of surviving and release populations in the wild, ongoing research and international collaboration, communications and outreach. The aim of presenting these reviews to the rest of the group was to ensure that all participants are up to date and in a position of being fully informed in order to proceed with the key decision making exercises over the next few days.