the.com/poison dart frog
A skittle-colored amphibian carrying enough toxin to drop ten grown men.
means A small, brightly colored tropical frog of Central and South America whose skin secretes potent toxins, historically used by Indigenous hunters to tip their blowgun darts.
from The name is plainly descriptive, naming the function: a frog whose skin coats the dart with poison. The practice is real — certain Indigenous peoples of the Colombian rainforest rubbed dart tips against the frogs to coat them with toxin, and the most lethal species, Phyllobates terribilis, carries 'terribilis' (Latin for 'frightful, terrible') for exactly that reason. The frogs only build their poison from a diet of certain insects in the wild, so captive-raised ones are harmless — but the name keeps the warning.
- toxin source
- They steal poison from the insects they eat
- captive frogs
- Raised without bugs, they become harmless
- golden killer
- One frog holds enough to kill ten people
- warning colors
- Bright skin screams do not eat me
- blowgun legacy
- Indigenous hunters tipped darts with their secretions
phyllobates terribilis — colombian frog whose skin contains enough batrachotoxin to kill 10 adult humans
phyllobates bicolor — ecuadorian golden poison dart frog, considered the most toxic vertebrate on earth
dendrobates azureus — brazilian blue poison dart frog kept in zoos and captive breeding programs worldwide