Wrapping the mountain chicken field trials

By Sarah Louise Smith

Since the last blog post volunteers on the Mountain Chicken project here in Montserrat have come and gone as we have seen Andres Fernandez return to Spain and have been delighted with the presence of the Linn Lagerstrom from Parken Zoo in Sweden for the month of the December. However, the future of the Mountain Chicken frog has been a rocky rollercoaster. Firstly, the rains ceased as during December and January the whole of the Caribbean entered into a drought. This was good news for us as it meant our visits into the forest were not interrupted by torrential storms. However, this also meant that thick layers of ash were accumulating in the forest (and on the frogs) as the volcano continued to be extremely active giving us a grey Christmas.

Despite these ashy conditions we entered into our monitoring phase of the project mid-December. Having completed our treatments we were monitoring the health status of the frogs to try and determine just how effective our anti-fungus regime is proving compared to the control frogs that were only treated with ghaut water. This stage of the project is critical as it will determine whether this type of treatment regime will be effective in the future for Mountain Chicken frogs and possibly for other amphibians around the world affected by the fungus. Unfortunately, our volcano had other ideas.

On the 8th January we were treated to a spectacular show as pyroclastic flows (a mixture of hot ash, pumous and gases) hurtled down the Belham valley on the South West flanks towards residents living in the Zone B area. Whilst this did not affect our area of the forest (in the North Eastern side of the volcano) it was a potent reminder of the threat posed by our geological spectacle. This event lead to another increase in the level of volcanic activity (reported daily on the local radio ZJB) and the growth of one of the largest lava domes yet seen by Montserrat. Heeding the advice of the scientists at the MVO (Montserrat Volcano Observatory) and the DMCA (Disaster Management Control Agency) we were forced to cease fieldwork on the 1st February 2010.

Despite our disappointment and frustration, on the 11th February we experienced the most impressive and terrifying demonstration of the power of the volcano yet seen in the life of this project; a partial dome collapse (where part of the volcano dome collapses sending large pyroclastic flows down the flanks) and an outward explosion down the North Eastern slopes. As well as creating an extra square kilometer of bubbling ashy land out to sea and wiping out one of the villages known as Harris’, which was occupied pre-volcano, this violent ash flow devastated a part of the Centre Hills killing many trees and covering a large part in a hot ashes and house-size boulders.

Naturally concerned about the future of the Mountain Chicken frogs, myself and the forestry staff were thrilled to be asked by the Director of the MVO to lead a hike into the affected Farm River area which took us directly through a part of our study area- a chance to check on the status of the frogs habitat! The result was a 5 cm layer of spongy ash and very dirty grey water. This meant that not only are the frogs battling the chytrid fungus, but they are now struggling to find food, fresh water and any reprieve from the acidic ash deposits covering their habitat. The Forestry Staff and I were saddened to admit that the future of this species was looking worryingly bleak.

As the end of March approached, we continued to be frustrated at not being allowed access to the study transect at night, so the Forestry staff and myself persisted with monitoring other transects island wide (set up by the Department of Environment) for any signs of surviving Mountain Chickens. The results were poor with only one Mountain Chicken heard, but not seen, in all 13 transects. However, as the last volunteer for this project and my time in Montserrat coming to an end, on my final night I was able to gain access to our study area with Mappai (one of our guides) and we sighted four healthy looking Mountain Chickens. So I was extremely pleased to be able to leave on a positive note, knowing some Mountain Chickens have survived these challenging months, and with all the Forestry staff eager for our return to resume our fight to save this fascinating species