What could be more important than engaging young children in the wonderfully wild world around them, opening their eyes to new careers, opportunities and even dreams!? Well this was exactly how we started our week on the project and it was fantastic!
We visited the 6th grade class at St. Augustines Primary School for an afternoon filled with activities especially...
In a previous post you saw the process we went through to mark out the mountain chicken release site and construct our trial ponds. This update explores the next step, increasing the temperature of the environment!
One thing we must do before we can successfully reintroduce the mountain chicken back to Montserrat, is to find a way in which we...
To celebrate mountain chicken day on the 13th September our partners hosted a myriad of events and activities to engage, excite and educate the general public in everything weird and wonderfully mountain chicken. They touched on topics from the mountain chickens unusual physiology and behaviours, right through to the challenges they have faced with exposure to deadly amphibian chytrid...
One of my earliest memories as a child is that of sitting watching Italian wall lizards basking in the sun at my Grandparents house in northern Italy, how the the sunlight glinted off their scales like little gems and how they would dart for shelter at the slightest sign of a threat. Looking back on it now those moments...
A quick video update for you all on how we are getting along with the rearing of our native and endemic live food, ready for the mountain chickens return to Montserrat!
Many of these species have never been reared in captivity, let alone at the high densities we are looking to achieve to feed all of the frogs coming over...
These last two weeks have been extremely busy for the project! We've been joined by ZSL's Cheska Servini, the self titled "Mountain Chicken Queen", who is contributing 16 of ZSL's captive bred mountain chickens to the second phase of our reintroduction project later next year.
Cheska has been joining us out in the field in the re-assessment of 15 historical...
July was a busy month for the project! Not only did it see the arrival of the first Durrell representative in Montserrat for 2 years and the initiation of the first phase of the new reintroduction project, we also started making excellent progress on all fronts; engaging the local community, conducting background data collections, habitat surveying and last but...
I must admit I feel as though I have been remiss; I've been in Montserrat working on the Mountain Chicken Recovery Programme for a month now and haven't yet taken the time to tell you about myself, my experiences and my role on the project.
This will be the first in a series of several introductions to current members of...
The Mountain Chicken Recovery Programme may have been quiet on the blog front for the last two years or so, but let me assure you Durrell and the MCRP have been busy plotting and scheming – and now we're finally back in Montserrat!
The captive populations have been busy doing their part for their species; several generations of offspring have...
In 2014 Nordens Ark became the newest partner in the mountain chicken project, and hope to assist in the restoration of self-sustaining, viable populations of the mountain chicken through breeding captive individuals and later reintroductions. The Ark itself is located near Smögen in Sweden and is run by a non-profit foundation.
Nordens' have been helping the mountain chicken’s cause since...