World's largest frogs airlifted to safety

SAN Juan, Puerto Rico - Scientists are airlifting dozens of one of the world's largest frogs off Montserrat island to save them from a deadly fungus devastating their dwindling habitat.

The dense forest of this tiny British Caribbean territory is the last remaining stronghold of the critically endangered mountain chicken frog, a 0.9kg, frying pan-size amphibian that got its name because locals say its meat tastes like - you guessed it - chicken.

Once eaten as a delicacy, the frog was hunted and much of its habitat on Montserrat was destroyed by the temperamental Soufriere Hills volcano. Now experts fear a virulent fungus could decimate the few thousand frogs they estimate survive.

"Its impact has been catastrophic," Andrew Cunningham, senior scientist with the Zoological Society of London, said of the chytrid fungus. "The mountain chicken frog has been virtually wiped out."

To save the frogs, scientists are giving some of them anti-fungal baths and scooping up dozens of others and flying them at a total cost of US$14,000 to zoos in Britain and Sweden, where they live in temperature-controlled rooms with automatic spray systems. About 50 have been flown off the island.

- AP