12. Mountain Chicken (Montserrat, Dominica)
You know how “Chicken of the Sea” is only tangentially related to… chicken? Well, the Caribbean has its own equivalent. Known as the Mountain Chicken, on account of its poultry-like taste, leptodactylus fallax is found exclusively on Montserrat and Dominica, where for many years it has been eaten as part of a traditional island dish. This species of frog is one of the world’s largest, sometimes growing to nearly a foot in length. Unfortunately, due to a trifecta of environmental factors (habitat loss, volcanic eruptions, and, most drastically, an epidemic of lethal fungus), the Mountain Chicken is now listed as “Critically Endangered,” meaning that they face a very high risk of extinction. Currently, Mountain Chickens are being bred in captivity and released into the wild to restore the population.