Dan the Frog

Last night was my first outing with the Dominica Mountain Chicken Project and it did not disappoint!! We set out to return a frog that had been found by some construction workers at a building site (Katie was the name of the frog, named after the girlfriend of a couple who visited the project a few years ago). During the returning of katie we walked one of the projects transects to see if we could discover more frogs and just after releasing katie we found a a very impressive male. As I was the newbie of the group it was my honour to capture him. Fortunately I succeeded and we found out he was a previously captured male, with no name! So any guesses as to what he was named? Yes, of course DAN! An ego maniac such as me could never pass up the opportunity to have a frog named after oneself. So he was processed (swabbed for the Chytrid fungus, legs measured, body measured and weight taken - he was about 350g putting him about middle weight as they can get up to 800 -1000g) and released. Shortly after we found a second individual, well I say we Mr Stephen Durand of the Forestry Department saw it hoping along the road, so in we swooped! This again was a reasonably sized male, however this one had never been found before so after the same processes that Dan had were complete we then pit tagged "Josh" (named after one of the other volunteers), a pit tag is exactly the same as the thing you tag your dog with and allows each frog to be identified. I also greatly enjoyed leaping around the forest to see every gecko I could and observing all the little anoles sleeping in trees. Good times!

Katie about to be released!

Dan the Frog

Josh the Frog, being held by Josh ready for a PIT tag.