by Emmanuel H. Joseph
Government Information Service
Curator of herpetology at the Zoological Society of London, Dr. Ian Stephen, wants Dominican nationals to stop the hunting of the Mountain Chicken for a few years. Dr. Stephen made the remark during an interview with the Government Information Service on Monday, 1st December, 2008. This is part of ongoing efforts by the Forestry, Wildlife and Parks Division here to address concerns relating to the spread of the Chytrid fungus among the frog population.
Dead mountain chicken or crapaud
In 2002, residents of Gallion reported sightings of sick and dead crapaud. Scientists from London later confirmed that it was a result of the Chytrid fungus. A ban was imposed on the hunting of the Mountain Chicken but there continues to be hunting of the frog in certain parts of the island.
This is having a negative impact on ongoing efforts to restore the crapaud population. Scientists now believe that if something is not done now, Dominica’s Mountain Chicken could become extinct within six to twelve months.
“If people want to see the crapaud in ten, twenty (10-20) years, if people want to enjoy eating the frogs for generations to come, just for the short term, just for a couple of years, everybody has got to stop eating mountain chicken.”
Dr. Stephen acknowledged that it will be tricky, but said it boils down to a matter of choice: either we want to eat the last couple of individuals (mountain chicken) now and prevent our children and grandchildren from enjoying them or we can just decide to hold off for a while allowing the population to get a chance of recovery. He went on to say that there have been examples in other parts of the world where the frog made a comeback and that is a sign of encouragement bolstered by the introduction of captive bred animals back into the ecosystem.
 Curator of herpetology at the Zoological
Society of London, Dr. Ian Stephen
Dr. Stephen warns that the extinction of the mountain chicken will have negative effects on the island’s ecosystem.
“It is not just a question of the crapaud going extinct. There are many, many more ecological consequences of taking that animal out of the ecosystem and that is what I think a lot of people do not realise. People are just, I think, imagining that the crapaud goes extinct I will find a new National Dish or we will eat chicken or fish or whatever. The problem is that that frog plays such a crucial role in the ecosystem that taking it out is, I think, and ecologists will agree, going to have grave long term consequences for the ecosystem.
Dominica is the Nature Isle and people come here because they want to see nature. For example, if you take away a key stone from an arch in a building, let us say, the arch collapses and that is the crucial role that the mountain chicken plays in the ecosystem here because a lot of things eat it, and the mountain chicken, themselves, eat a lot of things. They have big appetites and eat a lot of insects and a lot of different invertebrates. Already I can see the effects of a declining population. There are people complaining about the increase in grasshoppers, millipedes and centipedes.”
Dr. Stephen believes that the population of the animals that the crapaud feeds on will continue to grow as long as the crapaud population continues to shrink. He went on to say that the fungal disease was first identified ten years ago and scientists are still uncertain what effect the eating of infected crapaud has on the human body, and as such, he would not eat it neither encourages his friends or family to do likewise.
In the meantime, Dr. Stephens told GIS News that for now, captivity is one of the major methods in which they can mitigate the effect of the virus. If left out in the wild, it is most certain that the Chytrid fungus will kill the affected amphibian population. By bringing in small groups and breeding, there is some hope.
“By bringing small populations into captivity, we can hope to create almost something like an arch population of the frogs for the future. Last year, we actually took some frogs to London and we have built quite an expensive facility there. It is a bio secure facility so it is separate from the zoo. People service the animals almost like you would see in a viral lab to avoid any possibility of passing on diseases to the animals and as well to prevent any diseases leaving the facility. Anything that leaves the facility is treated and we have also built a breeding facility here in the Botanical Gardens. The goal is that we will probably bring frogs back from the UK, breeding both in Dominica and the United Kingdom.”
However, Dr. Stephens notes that the problem of the Chytrid fungus is not unique to Dominica, but is happening to amphibians all over the world. |
