Leptodactylus fallax

The mountain chicken is nicknamed thus because it is preyed upon and considered a local delicacy on the islands of Montserrat and Dominica, where it is found. It supposedly tastes like chicken. ==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 in weight and up to in snout–to–vent length, although a more typical adult size is . Females tend to be larger than males. The body is robust, with a large head and well-muscled legs. 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). ==Distribution and habitat==

The mountain chicken was once found on many of the Lesser Antillean islands in the eastern Caribbean, but is now restricted to just Dominica and Montserrat. It once occurred in certain places, including Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Kitts, and Nevis, but is now extirpated there and may also have inhabited Saint Lucia and Antigua. There was an unsuccessful attempt to introduce it to Jamaica and Puerto Rico (where it is not native). In the early 2000s, the mountain chicken was largely restricted to the Centre Hill of northern Montserrat, having been lost from much of the rest of the island by recent volcanic eruptions, and on the western side of Dominica. It is also found on the eastern side of Dominica, but the species origin there is unclear and it may have been introduced to the area. 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. It is most commonly found near streams and springs, and is rarely found in grasslands. On Dominica, it was most abundant at lower altitudes, although it occurs up to , and was found up to on Montserrat. ==Behavior and ecology==

The mountain chicken is terrestrial and nocturnal. A sit-and-wait predator with a voracious appetite, this frog consumes almost anything that can be swallowed whole. It is well camouflaged in its habitat and remains still for long periods before ambushing its prey, usually at night. Despite its willingness to eat other frogs, except for consuming unfertilized eggs, cannibalism is not known from the mountain chicken. 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 over about 45 days, the female continuously renews the foam, leaving the nest only to feed. Eventually, 26 to 43 froglets emerge from the nest, with the timing of this coinciding with the onset of the wet season, when food is abundant. 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. ==Threats and conservation==

The initial decline in the species was caused by hunting for human consumption, along with natural disasters and habitat loss. It was estimated that the population had fallen by more than 80 percent from 1995 to 2004. Annual harvests were thought to be taking between 8,000 and 36,000 animals before a ban on hunting was introduced. 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. Captive breeding Following the catastrophic volcanic eruptions on Montserrat, it became clear that dedicated conservation measures were needed to save the mountain chicken frog 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 several other zoos achieving further breeding success. These captive frogs now form the basis of a safety-net population should the species become extinct in the wild. along with five US zoos, and viable clutches are produced each year. This is part of a trial program to determine the later chance of a successful reintroduction and these frogs are closely monitored to see potential differences in mortality to the chytrid fungus that is found throughout Montserrat. They are in a fenced-in semi-wild enclosure where their water pool is heated to by solar power, which is above the temperature where the chytrid fungus can live. From 2007 to 2017, there were attempts to establish a local captive breeding program for the Dominica population of the species, but it did not succeed and was finally abandoned when Hurricane Maria destroyed the facilities in Dominica. ==References==