Measuring as much as 20 centimeters from snout to rear and weighing up to a kilo, the mountain chicken—named for its reputedly tasty flesh—is a frog in freefall. And, these days, hunting for its meat is the least of its problems.

Once found on at least five major islands in the Lesser Antilles, this giant frog is now confined to Dominica—where it once had the misfortune to be the unofficial national dish—and to a small enclosed area on the nearby island of Montserrat.

Putting the mountain chicken on the map

The mountain chicken has been on Fauna & Flora's radar before. During the volcanic eruptions that began on Montserrat in 1995, and which later destroyed the capital and forced two-thirds of the population to flee, we carried out emergency surveys to assess the impact on this culturally important amphibian. This was the first time that the frog's plight was drawn to the attention of the wider world.

Croak of invisibility

The devastating fungal disease chytridiomycosis reached Montserrat in 2009, prompting the decision to evacuate as many healthy frogs as possible and conserve the species through captive-breeding programs in zoos. Without the earlier intervention in 1995, there seems little doubt that the entire mountain chicken population on Montserrat would have succumbed, out of sight and out of mind. Unfortunately, efforts to repatriate the zoo-bred frogs have been complicated by their lack of resistance to disease.