Mountain Chicken

The frog Leptodactylus fallax is called the "mountain chicken" because its meat was traditionally said to taste like chicken, and the species was historically hunted as a food source on the Caribbean islands where it lives. The culinary name stuck despite the animal being one of the largest frog species in the world, unrelated to any bird.

The mountain chicken frog is classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with population crashes of over 80 percent in recent decades. The primary driver of this collapse is the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which swept through Dominica starting around 2002 and later reached Montserrat.

The mountain chicken frog is now native to only two Caribbean islands: Dominica and Montserrat. It was once also found on several other Caribbean islands including St. Kitts, Nevis, and Guadeloupe, but has been extirpated from those locations.

Yes, conservation organizations including the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, ZSL London Zoo, and Chester Zoo maintain captive breeding populations of the mountain chicken frog. These programs aim to preserve the species with the eventual goal of reintroducing individuals to their native islands once chytrid fungus threats can be adequately managed.