ROSEAU, Dominica– Dominicans may be without their national dish for a ”very long time” as the authorities warn of the chytrid fungus continuing to impact the mountain chicken, a species of giant frog native to the area.
Wildlife ecologist at the Forestry Department, Janelle Brisbane, speaking on a radio program hosted by the Ministry of the Environment, said the mountain chicken |is definitely going to be off the table for a while” and that the soil-borne fungal disease “is here to stay in Dominica,” after first being detected in 2002.
“It is in the soil…it is tough to get rid of, and for some reason, our frogs in Dominica have been coping with it. But, for the most part, most of the frogs died from it,” she said, noting that within one year between 2002-and 3, “we lost over 85 percent of our frogs.
“It has been a downhill battle since. But 20 years later, through the conservation efforts of the Forestry Division and regional, international partners, we have managed to keep the frog alive. We have managed to sustain a population; we (want) people to understand and respect the mountain chicken as the national, cultural, and ecological symbol.
“It will be a very long time before we could even consider eating the mountain chicken again,” Brisbane added.
The mountain chicken frog, which supposedly tastes like chicken, is critically endangered. This means that they face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild due to a drastic population decline due to hunting by people, volcanic activity, and the arrival of the chytrid fungus.
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