Several months ago I mentioned some of the work that the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has been doing in the Caribbean, including efforts to preserve mountain chicken populations in Montserrat. Well, it seems like those efforts, funded by the Darwin Initiative and carried out in collaboration with the Parken Zoo in Sweden, are being successful. Caribbean News Now reports that 200 captive bred mountain chickens will be released into the wild in Montserrat in early 2011:
“Montserrat is the only island in the Caribbean where you can still find the mountain chicken and they must be preserved or they will be extinct,” said environmentalist Sarah-Louise Smith.
Smith is the Project Manager of the “Enabling Montserrat to save the critically endangered mountain chicken,” which is being funded by the Darwin Initiative through the Department of Environment.
Following the arrival of the deadly chytrid fungus to Montserrat early last year, “Fifty frogs or mountain chickens as they are called were evacuated off island and flown to England and Sweden to enter a captive breeding programme,” explained Environmental Officer Ernestine Corbett.
Since then, Durrell Zoo in Jersey and Parken Zoo in Sweden have been very successful in breeding the founding population of mountain chickens, said a statement from the Environmental Department. Over 200 froglets were produced and are now ready to come back to Montserrat.
…
t is hoped that the first batch of mountain chicken froglets can be returned to island in January 2011.Although the mountain chicken could also be found in Dominica, Smith explained that is hardly visible and will be shortly extinct there. Montserrat she explained is the only island in the region with a large enough population that can be preserved.
Get more information in the full article at Caribbean News Now.
[Photo: blog.durrell.org]
