Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust ? Official Blog

Quiz shows for conservation

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:01:00 +0100

by Anselme Toto Volahy, Francisco (Coco) Rakotombololona & Lance Woolaver(Durrell Madagascar)

In Madagascar working with local communities is key to protecting biodiversity. In the Menabe region of Western Madagascar, we have spent many years studying and setting up protection for many endemic species such as the giant jumping rat, narrow-striped mongoose and flat-tailed tortoise. But a large part of the work being carried out by our team concerns community awareness and support for local capacity development. Why do we do this though and what are real outcomes for people and conservation?

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Species of the day!

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:51:00 +0100

I don’t know how but the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) figured out that it is my birthday today (17th June) and I suspect thats why they decided to make the solenodon the “Species of the day” today. Its all part of the IUCN involvement with the “International Year of Biodiversity” so please do check out and download the information which is available from here or If your reading this after the 17th of June then go here. The whole of the last survivor’s team feel extremely privileged to have one of our species honoured in this way.

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BBC coverage for the solenodon

Mon, 31 May 2010 16:24:00 +0100

We were not expecting to write another blog until mid June but there is lots of exciting news that we want to share with you and so it warrants this special edition blog. Cristina Fernandez Secades, a student from Imperial College, has joined the project. She has hit the ground running and has already had a very productive time interviewing people in villages located near one of the national parks. The Masters project she is carrying out has two main objectives: 1) to establish the level of predation that solenodon and hutia are suffering because of wild and domestic dogs 2) finding out the tolerance of people to damage of crops/livestock from both endemic and introduced species before a response is triggered, in addition to assessing the type of response created (e.g. poison, traps, hunting, etc).

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Time to Celebrate

Sat, 22 May 2010 17:39:00 +0100

To celebrate the International Day of Biodiversity, I want to highlight some of the many species that Durrell and our partners have supported over the years; either through the actions of our breeding programmes at the wildlife park in Jersey or through the field programmes and training around the world. All these species are either part of existing field projects, breeding programmes or important projects that we assist. There are many more and within this you will find some of the great success stories of conservation.

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Progress on the last survivors project

Wed, 12 May 2010 16:21:00 +0100

by Pedro Martinez and Jose Nunez-Mino

Back in the UK you have been experiencing the arrival of spring, here on the Island of Hispaniola we are still waiting for our next season to start in earnest – namely the rainy season. The island is currently experiencing a bit of a drought and although this is not a good thing in general, it has meant that we have managed to avoid any major soakings since our last update. That’s not to say that no rain has fallen, it just means we have not been caught out in the field when it has. However, instead we have had to cope with searing hot temperatures in order to look for solenodon and hutia in remote sites which can only be accessed via very long treks through areas of dry forest with little or no shade. Its been tough going!!

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Telfair?s skinks and Guenther?s geckos released on Ile aux Aigrettes

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:07:00 +0100

By Nik Cole, Durrell Mauritius Programme

March 2010 has been a busy month for the staff of the reptile team in Mauritius, translocating 550 endangered reptiles from Round Island to the nature reserve island Ile aux Aigrettes. This translocation forms part of our ongoing work to rebuild the lost endemic reptile communities of Mauritius with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and the National Parks and Conservation Service.

If you have seen some of the earlier blogs on Mauritius you‘ll know that Ile aux Aigrettes is an important site for the restoration and preservation of one of the last remnants of dry Mauritian coastal forest. Over the past 20 years nearly all invasive plants and numerous exotic animals, such as cats and rats have been removed. The restoration process has led to the re-introduction of endangered plant and animal species. Last year rats were again detected on the island and after a really intensive effort, it seems that we have been able to eradicate them. This opens the way to bring more Telfair’s skinks and Guenther’s geckos back onto the island.

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Wrapping the mountain chicken field trials

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:13:00 +0100

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.

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Oh the irony..mountain chickens and volcanos

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:35:00 +0100

Last week saw us organise the second workshop for the Mountain chicken restoration programme. Those of you following the blog will know about the plight of the mountain chicken frog. Reduced to existing on the two Caribbean islands of Montserrat and Dominica by the introduction of predators such as mongoose and rats, the species has now been hit by chytrid on both islands. Coupled with this, the last remaining wild population of any size then got covered in volcanic ash by a partial dome collapse in the Soufriere volcano in Montserrat in February (sound familiar??)

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Counting the blue iguanas

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:33:00 +0100

Matt Goetz, Durrell and Fred Burton, Blue Iguana Recovery Programme

Last December saw the sixth annual release of young Blue Iguanas (Cyclura lewisi) into Grand Cayman’s Salina Nature Reserve brought the total number of iguanas released back into the wild on Grand Cayman to over 300. It was now time to take a detailed look at how all those iguanas were doing. We knew they started breeding in the wild in 2006, but how successful had this natural breeding been in raising the total wild population even further?

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Durrell and the Museum of Life

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:13:00 +0100

The Natural History Museum has always been one of my favourite places in London. As an institution, it has been intertwined with the development of our understanding of the natural world for the last three hundred years. The very building itself is a monument to the discovery and reverence of nature. Also although it has some great displays, it’s what goes on behind the scenes that is most fascinating and so I was very excited to see a new series begin on BBC2 about the Museum and the people who work there (Museum of Life, BBC 2, Thursday 8pm).

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Hispanional solenodon: the work carries on.

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:03:00 +0100

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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Treating chytrid on Montserrat 25/11/09

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:57:00 +0100

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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Volunteering in St Lucia: monitoring whiptails

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:22:00 +0100

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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Fotsy Maso: finding the eggs

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:22:00 +0100

We check in with the diary kept by Lance Woolaver in Madagascar as the team arrived at the pochard lake, got set up and hoped to find a nest of eggs ready to be brought into captivity.

Saturday, Day 10, October 24
I am feeling better, although still weak and shaky, so hopefully I am over the worst of the flu. I was sweating so much last night that my sleeping bag and blanket were completely soaked in the morning. I walk up the hill to call home and hear that my family is responding to the Tamiflu and recovering. The feeling of relief is intense, and the sunshine and spectacular view of the lake down below are lifting my spirits. Now I can get back to work.

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Participatory monitoring of Madagascar?s Lac Alaotra fishery

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:36:00 +0100

By Andrea Wallace

Lac Alaotra lies 250km north east of Antananarivo (‘Tana’) and is the largest lake in Madagascar. Within a wetland area covering 7,225km2 the lake itself is 200km2 and is the nation’s most productive fishery. In 2003, it was declared a Ramsar site as a wetland of global importance and in 2007 the lake and its surrounding marsh, reedbeds, and rice fields was designated as a new protected area.

Durrell has worked here for some time conducting conservation education programmes and ecological monitoring to encourage sustainable use of the natural resources and protection of endemic species such as the Alaotran gentle lemur. Given how important the area is for artisanal (i.e. small-scale subsistence and commercial) fishing, it is very important to understand the relationship between conservation efforts and the fishers.

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