Reptiles Magazine - January/February 2020

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I am particularly delighted to be able to include the insightful story on the return of the mountain chicken to its native islands in Caribbean in this issue. It is a truly remarkable conservation success story which spans continents.
And just in case you think the mountain chicken is a bird, you’d be wrong! It’s a very distinctive amphibian. But there are parallels here with birds, in terms of the conservation methods being employed in the battle to raise public awareness and safeguard this frog’s future. Originally, most of the islands in the Caribbean had their own very unique species of parrot, many of which have gone extinct since Europeans started to colonise the region at the end of the fifteenth century.
Back in 1977 however, an Englishman called Paul Butler set out to reverse this trend, by helping to raise awareness of the uniqueness of these birds, initially on St Lucia and then Dominica. He enlisted the help of local schoolchildren, using their enthusiasm to drive forward the conservation message with older generations.
Our story about the mountain chicken takes you into the field, and highlights how Butler’s policy of engagement is now being used once again to help the fragile recovery of this species in the wild - a tough task, from some points of view, given that these frogs were highly sought after as a traditionalgourmetdishontheislandswheretheyoccur! Butwithstrong advocates on the ground, plus the latest scientific help, so the future is now looking much brighter for these unique amphibians.