Dominica is often called nature isle and is an emerald jewel in the Caribbean Sea. It has 60% of its forests remaining and the most intact reptile and amphibian assemblage in the Caribbean. Dominica was once the stronghold of the giant amongst frogs, the mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax). The mountain chicken has...
Sunday success
Fortunately we did not have to progress those thoughts as on Sunday 26 June eleven days after I had arrived and the first day all of us - myself, Luke and Katy from Chester (who had just arrived the previous day) - were out together we had success. As usual we arrived in Fairy Walk, had a much...
THE CULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF THE CRAPAUD TO THE COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA
Various species of animal wildlife have featured as important components in the cultural heritage of many countries all over the world. Some of these species are very iconic and have been elevated to the status of national emblems, flagship species, or have been included in the design of other...
Not all that crawls on Montserrat is a mountain chicken... On a Friday night we went down to Woodlands Beach to watch the locals lay their eggs. The local turtles that is. There are four kinds of turtles that nest on the beaches of Montserrat; Leatherback, Green backed, Hawk's Bill and the Loggerhead. The nesting period is July to...
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 August we were visited by camera technician Ninon Hives. She studied for a master on director of wildlife documentary at the university of Poitiers, France, and chose to do a documentary for the mountain chicken project as her project work. Great! Our lovely frogs will be famous! Ninon spent one month at the Herpetology Department of Durrell Wildlife...
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...
From reading this blog, it’s pretty evident that we’ve employed radio tracking as one of the main elements of the release. But, how do we do it? How do the frogs transmit signals? What are the signals like, and what do we do when we pick one up? In this blog we’ll try and answer some of those questions.
So...
The beginning of June brought us a couple of welcome visitors from Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the leading project partner along with the Department of Environment. Mr Paul Masterton is the Chief Executive Director of Durrell and Mrs Tricia Kreitman, a Trustee of Durrell who serves on the board of Governors. Tricia is also a Trustee of the Balcome...
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...