#mountain chicken

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

Could you do the mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax)?

Absolutely!

Have you seen the mountain chicken (Leptodactylus fallax)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onAug 16, 2025

[prosaiccat]

July's drawing is for the giant ditch frog. It's a day late because I got distracted by Artfight.

The critically endangered giant ditch frog is one of the biggest frogs in the world, and the largest frog native to the Caribbean. In just around 9 years, 1995 to 2004, they lost around 80% of their numbers. Today there is less then 200 individuals left, possibly even less then 50. The giant ditch frog is also commonly known as the ‘mountain chicken’, supposedly because the sound of it’s call and the taste of it’s meet is very similar to that of a chicken. The giant ditch frog is seen as a delicacy, but their drastic decline was not caused by over consumption. Habitat loss and natural disasters did also play a roll, but biggest cause was chytrid fungus. The fungus has killed many amphibians across globe, and makes it so their highly permeable skin cannot absorb and regulate fluids the way that they need to. There is still a tiny population still in the wilds of Dominica, but they are completely wiped out in Montserrat outside of breeding programs. Although their wild population is starting to grow, they will still heavily rely on captive breeding programs to fully bring them back.

You can donate to the Mountain Chicken Frog Conservation at https://www.zsl.org/ to help save the giant ditch frog.

[herpsandbirds]

Do you know of the mountain chicken

Yes, as a matter of fact, I used to know someone who was working with them at a zoo, part of the species recovery plan.

Photograph by Phil Bishop

Mountain Chicken a.k.a. White-lipped Frog (Leptodactylus fallax), family Leptodactylidae, Dominica

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.

Once found on five major Caribbean islands, this endangered frog is now only found on the island of Dominica and a small protected area on Montserrat.

This frog is endangered due to over harvesting as a food item, volcanic eruptions, habitat destruction, and most notably, the Chytrid fungus.

The common name comes from the fact that the meat… tastes like chicken. Allegedly.

This is a large frog, growing to a maximum snout vent length of 20 cm

Photograph via: Fauna and Flora International 

[twistedstorys-blog]

all mountain chickens should be fried

Yes like have you seen them cooked?

[manedwolfdaily]

so why are they called maned wolves if they’re not wolves?

No clue! They're also refered to as wolves or foxes in the native languages of South America (aka where maned wolves live). I assume they named them after what they looked like before fact checking if that's a wolf or fox and then we translated it semi literally!

There's a lot of animals who have strange names to be fair! Like The Mountain Chicken, who is actually a toad (atleast wolves and maned wolves are both canines-)

[kahangeldragon]

First time speaking and it’s yelling

[flarefloofer]

So, for summer school, our health teacher started off by making us introduce ourselves and our favorite animal.

I had some time to marinate in the choice of cat before he called on me and it occurred to me I could do something really funny, cuz he seemed to be a pretty laidback teacher.

*Teacher calls on me*

Me: Right now I really like mountain chickens.

Teacher: Aaand what’s that? A funky chicken or something? Does it have any weird or neat features?

Me: It’s a frog :3

Teacher: ……………..you sure about that? I was pretty sure I just heard you say chicken.

(He ended up googling it and it showed up on the big presentation screen tv thing. Lo and behold: a frog. Class was in hysterics while I tried to keep a straight face lmao)

[aer0wave]