Fungus devastates 'chicken' frog

Montserrat’s "mountain chicken" frog is the latest victim of the lethal chytrid fungus sweeping the world. UK researchers say that only two small pockets of the animals on the tiny Caribbean island remain disease-free. The mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax) is one of the world’s largest frogs, and appears on the coat of arms of neighbouring Dominica. Conservationists plan to take surviving frogs into captive breeding programmes. They suspect the chytrid fungus entered Montserrat on small frogs stowing away in consignments of produce from Dominica. "We’ve always been afraid that frogs coming in banana consignments from Dominica would bring chytrid and that it would then spread into the centre of the island," said John Fa, director of conservation science at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. "The northern populations are closer to the port, and the disease appears to have spread southward along the river systems. "Essentially, all populations to the north and north-west of the centre hills have been decimated, and there are just two remaining populations of seemingly healthy animals in the south-eastern corner." An expedition in 2005 found no sign of fungal infection. …

Fungus devastates ‘chicken’ frog