Leptodactylus fallax
Leptodactylus fallax | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Amphibia |
Order: | Anura |
Family: | Leptodactylidae |
Genus: | Leptodactylus |
Species: | L. fallax
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Binomial name | |
Leptodactylus fallax (Müller, 1926)
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Leptodactylus fallax, commonly known as the mountain chicken or giant ditch frog, is a
Etymology
The mountain chicken is nicknamed such after being preyed upon as a local delicacy on the islands of Montserrat and Dominica where it is found. It supposedly tastes like chicken.[6]
Description
The mountain chicken is one of the largest frogs in the world, the largest in its family Leptodactylidae and the largest frog native to the Caribbean. It can reach 1 kg (2.2 lb) in weight and up to 22 cm (8.7 in) in snout–to–vent length, although a more typical adult size is 17–18 cm (6.7–7.1 in).[4][7] Females tend to be larger than males.[4] It is highly variable in color, with the upperparts varying from a uniform chestnut-brown to being barred or spotted.[3] The color becomes more orange-yellow on the sides of the body, and pale yellow on the underparts.[3] A black line runs from the snout to the angle of the mouth, and the upper-legs often have broad banding.[3][8] The mountain chicken also has a distinctive, dark-outlined fold from the back of the head to the groin, and large, conspicuous eyes with dark pupils and a golden iris.[8][9] The body is robust, with a large head and well-muscled legs.[8] The male mountain chicken may be distinguished from the female by its smaller size, and by the black 'spur' on each of its thumbs, which are used to clasp the female during amplexus (the mating embrace).[8]
Distribution and habitat
The mountain chicken was once found on many of the
The mountain chicken is found in a variety of moist habitats, including dense secondary forest and scrub, hillside plantations, palm groves in river valleys, ravines and flooded forest.[3][8][9] It is most commonly found near streams and springs, and is rarely found in grasslands.[8] On Dominica it was most abundant at lower altitudes, although it occurs up to 400 m (1,300 ft), and was found up to 430 m (1,410 ft) on Montserrat.[2]
Behavior and ecology
The mountain chicken is
A sit-and-wait predator with a voracious appetite, this gluttonous frog consumes almost anything that can be swallowed whole. It is well camouflaged against its habitat and remains still for long periods of time, before ambushing its prey, usually at night.
Breeding
The mountain chicken has a highly unusual method of reproduction, as unlike most other amphibians which breed in water, this frog breeds in burrows around 50 cm (20 in) deep. The breeding season starts towards the end of the dry season, usually in April when there are heavy seasonal showers, and continues to August or September.[8] At the start of this period, the male frogs compete to gain access to preferred nesting sites by wrestling and making loud 'whooping' calls from forest paths and undergrowth clearings.[3][8] The winning male occupies a nesting burrow and emits 'trilling barks' to attract a female mate.[3] Once a breeding pair is formed, the male and female engage in amplexus and the female is stimulated to release a fluid, which the male makes into a foam with rapid paddles of its hind legs. Once the nest is built, which takes 9 to 14 hours, the male leaves the burrow to defend it from intruders, while the female lays the eggs.[3][12] After the tadpoles have hatched, the female lays up to as many as 25,000 trophic (unfertilized) eggs upon which the tadpoles feed. While the young develop, which takes around 45 days, the female continuously renews the foam, only leaving the nest to feed.[3] Eventually 26 to 43 froglets emerge from the nest, with the timing of this coinciding with the onset of the wet season, when there is an abundance of food.[3][8] The mountain chicken reaches maturity at around 3 years, and has a lifespan of approximately 12 years. Mature females only produce one brood per season, but male frogs may father the offspring of more than one female.[8]
Threats and conservation
The initial decline in the species was caused by hunting for human consumption, along with natural disasters and
Hunting
On Dominica, this critically endangered frog is favoured for its meaty legs, which are cooked in traditional West Indian dishes, and it was until recently the country's national dish.[13] Annual harvests were thought to be taking between 8,000 and 36,000 animals before a ban on hunting was introduced.[2] The mountain chicken is particularly vulnerable to such harvesting as it has a relatively small brood size, limiting its ability to recover from heavy losses, while the removal of breeding females is particularly damaging, as the tadpoles are dependent upon the females for food and moisture. The species' large size, loud calls and tendency to sit in the open also makes it a particularly easy target for hunters.[8]
Hunting of the mountain chicken frog was banned on Dominica in the late 1990s, although a three-month open season was declared at the end of 2001, and hunting was not fully prohibited until 2003.[2][8] Public awareness programmes have also been implemented to inform the Dominican public of the threats the mountain chicken faces and to try to discourage hunting.[2]
Disease
Perhaps the greatest, and least understood, threat to the mountain chicken frog today is the deadly fungal disease
Other threats
The mountain chicken has also lost huge areas of its habitat to agriculture, tourist developments, human settlements and, on Montserrat, volcanic eruptions. On Dominica, the species is largely confined to coastal areas where there is great demand for land for construction, industry and farming, while on Montserrat, volcanic activity since 1995 has exterminated all populations outside of the Centre Hills.[2][8] Human encroachment upon the species' habitat has also brought it into contact with a range of pollutants, including the highly toxic herbicide Paraquat, which is known to kill birds and mammals. Predation from introduced mammals, such as feral cats, dogs, pigs and opossums, is also a relatively new threat to the species on Dominica.[8]
In February 2010, volcanic activity from Soufrière Hills on Montserrat resulted in ash covering large parts of the frog's habitat on that island, further endangering the species.[14]
Captive breeding
Following the catastrophic volcanic eruptions on Montserrat, it became clear that dedicated conservation measures were needed if the mountain chicken frog was to be saved from extinction. In July 1999, the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust took six male and three female frogs to Jersey Zoo (formerly known as Durrell Wildlife Park) as part of a captive breeding program. Additional frogs were taken from disease-free areas, and the species has readily bred in captivity, with a number of other zoos achieving further breeding success.[1][15] These captive frogs now form the basis of a safety-net population should the species become extinct in the wild.[15] In addition, since January 1998, the Montserrat Forestry and Environment Division, in partnership with Fauna and Flora International, have been monitoring the species' population.[3]
Since the captive effort based on the Montserrat population was initiated in 1999 by Jersey Zoo, it has been successfully bred as part of an
From 2007 to 2017, there were attempts of establishing a local captive breeding program for the Dominica population of the species, but it did not succeed and was finally abandoned when the facilities in Dominica were destroyed by Hurricane Maria.[4]
References
This article incorporates text from the
- ^ . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ^ .
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Leptodactylus fallax". AmphibiaWeb. Berkeley, California. 23 March 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Jameson, T.; B. Tapley; A. Barbón; M. Goetz; L. Harding; J. López; K. Upton; G. García (2019). "Best Practice Guidelines for the Mountain Chicken (Leptodactylus fallax)" (PDF). European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). Retrieved 26 January 2020.
- ^ a b Richard, Black (17 March 2009). "Fungus devastates 'chicken' frog". BBC News.
- ^ Ryan Schuessler (28 January 2016). "The Mountain Chicken Frog's First Problem: It Tastes Like..." National Geographic News. Archived from the original on 29 January 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g "The tale of the mountain chicken". Chester Zoo. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Daltry, J.C. (2002) Mountain Chicken Monitoring Manual. Fauna and Flora International, Cambridge, and the Forestry and Wildlife Division, Dominica.
- ^ a b c Schwartz, A. and Henderson, R.W. (1991) Amphibians and Reptiles of the West Indies: Descriptions, Distributions and Natural History. The University of Florida Press, Florida.
- .
- S2CID 85140949.
- ^ Giant ditch frog. World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (September 2010).
- ^ "Mountain Chicken no longer Dominica National Dish". SearchDominica.com. 8 January 2014.
- ^ "Oh the irony..mountain chickens and volcanos". the dodo blog. Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. 19 April 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
- ^ a b "Mountain chicken". Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (September 2010).
- ^ "Mountain chicken". Zootierliste. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
- ^ "Mountain chicken frog". Detroit Zoo. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
- ^ "Mountain chicken frogs offspring return to Caribbean home". The Guardian. 12 September 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
External links
- mountain-chicken/leptodactylus-fallax Leptodactylus fallax media from ARKive
- Mountain Chicken at The Ark Gallery