Treating Chytrid in Montserrat 25/08/09

As followers of the blog will know, the situation for the mountain Chicken has become dire. Since February Durrell has been working with partners to set up an ex situ population to breed animals for release back to Montserrat. At the same time we have been exploring options with Andrew Cunningham from ZSL to see how this disease may be treated in the wild. While the guys were in Montserrat earlier in the year, they started a pilot study to see if we tried to treat the disease, could we recapture frogs to allow repeated treatments and would we see any increase in the survival while being treated. Although the analyses are still being completed, the results are really encouraging. So far we know that we can recapture frogs for repeated treatment and it seems that survival is definitely increased. Therefore we have developed a full experimental design that will be implemented over the next three months to confirm whether anti-fungal agents can be used to increase the survival of frogs in the wild. With this knowledge we may be able to design management protocols that might allow frogs to survive in the presence of the disease.

As with our other field missions to Montserrat the guys on the ground leading the fieldwork, Gonçalo Rosa and Andrés Fernández Loras, will keep us posted of developments during this time. Below is the first post from the guys who at the moment are being supported by Kay Bradfield from Durrell’s Herpetological Department.

Starting Up

The first few days at Montserrat have already gone, with no chance for rest since such a challenging task requires all our effort. Field trips and meetings with the Montserratian Department of Agriculture started on the day we arrived and keep happening in order to keep everything running smoothly. The “Emerald Island of the Caribbean” is a tiny but astonishing place with many places that are really worth visiting and the eternal and scary presence of the active volcano.

One of our main concerns before arriving on Montserrat was what the real status of the frogs on the island would be, and how much damage the disease would have caused already. Our first visit to Fairy Walk, which is one of the last strongholds of the frogs in the whole island and therefore in the whole world, filled us with desolation because of the few animals sighted and heard calling. Coming back home that night we were wondering if we were too late and this devastating disease had already taken its toll on the critically endangered frogs. Fortunately in the next visits to the same site, we sighted more frogs, including froglets, and heard even more calling; this really lifted-up our spirits.

It is really difficult to explain the thoughts and feelings when being involved in such an important and relevant project. The very steep tropical jungle dressed hills these frogs inhabit are a wonderful, spectacular and breathtaking backdrop. Entering there looking for the frogs, is like entering a completely different and unexpected world. Moreover, having the chance of seeing the last specimens of a critically endangered frog species and feeling you are somehow trying to help them fighting this devastating disease and pull back from the edge of extinction is extremely rewarding.

But between all the field trips and the processing of biological samples, there is also a little bit of time to do other things here at Montserrat. Indeed we are very lucky because we are here at the correct place and time of the year to see leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea), hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) arriving to Montserrat beaches after a long journey in order to lay their eggs. No way we could miss the chance of seeing such an awesome moment so we went to Woodlands beach on Sunday night and after waiting for a while we were lucky enough to observe a hawksbill turtle, which is listed by the IUCN as a critically endangered species, making a deep nest in the black coloured sand with its flippers, laying nearly one hundred eggs and burying them afterwards to protect them from possible predators. It was really an unforgettable experience.