Rescuing the mountain chicken: 03/04/09

This morning was devoted to meetings with the Montserrat stakeholders to finally agree the exact plan for taking the frogs from the wild tonight and their export to Durrell and our partners. The logistics are not easy to organise as of course first of all the frogs have to fly out to Antigua and then from there to London. We want to make their trip as smooth and safe as possible so we are using all the connections we have to ensure a swift transit through Antigua. See more photos of the capture here.

With a trip to Fairy Walk planned for the night, we spent the afternoon making final preparations. With everything ready to receive them in the facility, we loaded up the car with the usual supplies of gloves, boots, overalls, head torches and disinfectant but this time we also took with us the first set of the cotton bags and boxes lined with towels to give the frogs a gentle ride. It was really exciting to be setting off to actually catch some this time and bring them in to safety. But there is a real sense of trepidation as this is the last population and so if chytrid takes it toll that’s it for the mountain chicken.

Meeting up with the Forestry team, we headed in convoy to Fairy Walk – a magical name for a magical place. The walk in was long but relatively easy and I think the excitement of the mission today put a spring in everyone’s step.

As we got deeper into the forest, again we smelt the pungent smell of rotting animal and I was beginning to dread what we were going to find – this time though it was not dead frog but a rotten agouti.

Walking on, but with a slight edge of nervousness now, we were rewarded with the most fantastic sight – suddenly there seemed to be frogs everywhere – and all apparently healthy and strong. In fact they were so huge and their skin so beautiful, that they could have been a different species from the ones we had seen in Pelican. They were protesting loudly as the frog catchers grabbed them one by one to be assessed, photographed for identification and assigned an individual bag. At one point it seemed that everyone had at least one frog in their hand – and I even managed to catch my first frog too! Holding one of these animals so close was incredible – I’m sure she was even smiling at me!

As we worked on efficiently and swiftly, not wanting to cause the frogs any more stress than necessary, we heard some males calling from just below us – a wonderful sound that I will never forget.

Each of the 26 bags was carefully attached to some poles cut from the forest and after a short break for refreshments, we began the trek back down to the cars in high spirits. The time we spent in Fairy Walk was very short compared with the visits to other places we had been to before. We didn't even walk 100 m of the transect and we saw more than 30 frogs! Everybody was very excited about the numbers of frogs we were seeing and how incredible Montserrat would be if every ghaut was like this one. At the same time we were saying there was a sort of complicity of not saying the words chytrid fungus during the time we were there. But all of us we know that these surveys maybe the last ones before the mass mortality of frogs will start there.

The procession of the team with their poles laden with frogs was slow and careful – this was a very precious cargo. Arriving back at our vehicles, each bag was carefully removed from the poles and laid gently in the boxes we had prepared for the journey to the transport facility.

The cargo was gently unloaded and each bag carefully unpacked. Every frog was swabbed and then treated before being released into their new temporary accommodation. They did not seem concerned about this and as we were working our way through the collection, we heard some of the males already calling from their ponds and even before inside the bags! These frogs really deserved to give all our efforts to save them.

The Montserrat vet, Nicolas Waldron, arrived to help with the treatments and his assistant even brought a very welcome supply of coffee. Frogs were placed in the four large pools where they will spend a few days prior to their departure to Durrell and ZSL captive breeding facilities.

Leaving the facility (it was almost 02:00 AM), I felt a very strong sense of protection for these frogs – they could be the only future hope for the Mountain Chickens in Montserrat.

This day was, for me, magical – Fairy Walk must be one of the most beautiful places on earth and so deserves its name. Seeing this many apparently healthy frogs in such a small area was just unbelievable - this day was the boost that the whole team really needed. However it is also a sobering thought that the animals we leave behind will suffer the same fate as those in Pelican over the next weeks or months…