I simply can’t write this blog without mentioning the devastating earthquake that hit Hispaniola on the 12 of January 2010; it was felt throughout the island although its destructive impact was concentrated on the Haitian capital (Port-Au-Prince). I was in the capital of the Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo) at the time and we felt it there too; some people in Santo Domingo ran out of and away from buildings in fear. In terms of the project, this natural disaster is likely to have a real impact in the future. Thousands of people have lost everything and many have been displaced. In the short term, the immediate humanitarian need obviously takes precedence. However, I hope that in the long term the environmental/conservation aspect is taken into account as part of Haiti’s recovery plan.

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Here on the island of Montserrat the project to help the mountain chickens in their fight against the deadly chytrid fungus continues. During the last weeks the weather has been quite harsh as we are now in the middle of the wet season and heavy rains arrive almost every day. These rains completely change the scenery at both ghauts, the streams run with an amazing strength washing everything in their way towards the sea. In spite of all these rains, only very few times this has stopped us from going into the field and we are still treating the frogs and continuing with the established protocols of the project.

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By Edward Bell

When not working in the coastal dry forest looking for White-breasted Thrashers another role we have out here is the continued monitoring of the St Lucia Whiptail lizard Cnemidophorus vanzoi. The St Lucia Whiptail is found only on four offshore islands around the coast of St Lucia, it was believed to be found on the mainland but by the time of its discovery in the 1960’s it ended up restricted to two Islands off the south east coast of the island, Maria Major and Maria Minor. Durrell and St Lucia forestry Dept successfully implemented a translocation to Praslin Island just up the east coast in 1997 to try and ensure the survival of the population. It was the introduction and spread of invasive species such as rats, mongoose and cats which we assume led to the whiptail dieing out on the mainland – so the first which needed to be done when translocating this lizard was to remove any potential predators off the islands.

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By Edward Bell

The beautiful bustling island of St Lucia is going to be my home for the next 6 months. St Lucia is part of the chain of islands known as the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, the Lesser Antilles with the exception of Barbados are volcanic islands, some more active then others e.g. Montserrat. The mountainous terrain in the center of the island helps shape the climate trapping moisture leading to lush vegetation and rainforests at the core and coastal dry forest down the Atlantic east coast.

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By Jose Nuñez-Miño, Durrell Caribbean Programme

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (DR) - Arriving in a country to set up and run a new project is never easy. Luckily for us we have a fantastic in country collaborator in the shape of Jorge Brocca, the Director of “Sociedad Ornitológica de la Hispaniola” (SOH). Not only is he a highly accomplished conservation biologist but also knows how to get things done in the Dominican Republic. He has definitely made everything happen far more smoothly than we could have imagined. It’s a promising start to the Darwin Initiative-funded Hispaniolan land mammal project which is looking at the long term conservation prospects of the last two surviving terrestrial mammals on the island: the Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus) and the Hispaniolan hutia (Plagiodontia aedium).

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NASA has just released a stunning image taken by astronauts on board the International Space Station. Apparently its a called an oblique image which is taken at an angle rather than vertically, which is more common in satellite images. This gives a greater sense of depth and dimension to the image.

The image is taken upside down and so the south-western tip of the island is in the top left corner of the image. Importantly the image clearly shows the area that we are interested in - the South Soufriere Hills (green forested area in top left of image). This is the area that we hope to survey fairly soon to see how suitable it may be as an area to release mountain chickens. Click on 'More' to see the full image of the island and for a link to the NASA website, where you can download it.

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For both of us, Gonçalo and Andres, it is our first time here at Montserrat. We are really proud of being involved in a project like this one. Having such an amazing opportunity of working with a critically endangered species, and being in a position from which we are actually trying to help the frogs is certainly invaluable. It also gives us the chance of working along the Montserratian Forestry Department’s Staff. We have already pleasantly realized how aware are these people of the importance of the Mountain Chicken as national treasure and also how committed are they to the project. They have an extremely good predisposition and they are always willing to help. This is something we really appreciate, since without their contribution it would be completely impossible to carry out this mission.

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Sometimes the weather does not help you out when you are involved in a field work project such as this one. This is definitely something we have learned during the last week here at Montserrat, when Tropical Storm “Erika” passed over us, preventing us from going into the field as many days as we intended to. Moreover, once the storm passed over the island, it left both Pelican and Fairy Walk Ghauts with large volumes of water flowing through them. The water, running rapidly, changed the appearance of both study sites almost completely, washed everything in its way downhill and made our work there a little bit more complicated. In a field project like this one, having the help and commitment of staff from the Forestry Department is really important, but this week their knowledge of almost every inch of the terrain we are working in, and also of the quickly changing weather of the island, was essential. Thank you so much guys!!!

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Days are passing quickly here in the Caribbean. As the hard but rewarding field work continues as we keep the project “alive and kicking”, collecting a large number of samples and lots of data. We are currently working at two study sites: we are continuing the pilot study into the effectiveness of anti-fungal baths as a treatment for chytrid fungus that was started in March at Pelican Ghaut, and we are conducting the full-scale trial at Fairy Walk. Each site is being visited three times per week. The situation differs markedly between the two sites: while we are only finding two or three frogs per night at Pelican, in Fairy Walk we have found more than 60 frogs on a single night. We are also finding small numbers of dead frogs at Fairy Walk, but this is to be expected.

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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.

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