Poison Dart Frogs
Poison dart frogs or dendrobates are possibly the most beautiful family of amphibians on the planet. However, their colors warn that they are highly poisonous: in fact, they are the most toxic animals that exist. Learn a little more about these amazing amphibians.
Characteristics of poison dart frogs
The poison dart frog family actually consists of almost 200 different species. As they are close relatives, all of these amphibians have a few characteristics in common.
The size of poison dart frogs changes depending on the species and the age of each specimen, but they are quite small compared to the rest of the amphibians that we know; the smallest are half a centimeter long and the largest barely reach three and a half centimeters.
They all have diurnal habits, that is, they have their maximum activity during the day and they spend the night resting or hiding. Thanks to their toxicity, they do not have predators, so they do not have to camouflage themselves at twilight or at night, like many other animals.
The most striking aspect of these animals are their colors. Its appearance is due to a survival strategy used by other animals. With its vivid colors it draws the attention of its predators to alert them that they are highly poisonous. Its venom is so powerful that it can kill a human being just by touching its skin.
After several studies it has been found that, indeed, the more colors the frogs of this family have and the more striking their color patterns, the more venom they have. The most poisonous species is the golden frog, but there is a wide range of colors in the family: yellow, blue, red, and brown. They can be plain in color, with spots of darker colors and even striped.
Poison dart frogs feeding
These amphibians generally feed on small arthropods. That is, ants, spoonbills, termites, mites … The specific diet depends on the species of frog. The largest amphibians will eat the largest insects, while the smallest have to make do with mites and ants.
They extract their venom from their diet, as poison dart frogs are unable to synthesize it on their own. Through the arthropods that they eat, they store the toxins present in them and store them in the skin. Since these toxins do not affect them, they become poisonous to other animals.
In fact, the poisonous dart frogs that live in captivity and that have a diet supplied by humans, stop feeding on the arthropods that supply them with toxins: in a few weeks they stop being poisonous, despite being well fed and healthy. .
Habitat of poison dart frogs
The poison dart frog family is found only in Central and South America. Their habitat goes from Nicaragua to Bolivia, and they can appear on a Caribbean island; in addition, they have been artificially introduced into Hawaii. There is a greater variety of species in the areas of Panama, Costa Rica, the Colombian Andes, and the Andean areas of Peru and Ecuador.
They can be found in very different ecosystems: they like areas with a lot of vegetation and very high humidity. In addition, the temperatures must be high and constant throughout the year. In this way, they live in cloud forests, tropical rainforests, and Andean forests. They can be found 3,000 meters above sea level.
Its name comes from the belief that the tribes of the forests and tropical forests used them to poison their arrows. We currently know that only four species of the total that make up this family are used by these people in their weapons. In fact, they prefer to use poisonous plants for this work.
There are no large population studies of poison dart frogs to know if they are in danger of extinction or not. However, they are known to have lost large areas of their ecosystems recently and endured a plague of deadly disease.
In addition, they are victims of poaching to turn them into exotic pets. There is no real data on how many frogs of this family are in the wild , but some species have been included in the list of threatened animals to be able to start putting prevention and alert measures before it is too late.
Poison dart frogs are one of the animals with the most amazing colors in nature. Thanks to their evolutionary strategy, they are also the most poisonous. They are endemic to the humid ecosystems of Central and South America. They are hard to find in the wild, but if you do, don’t touch them.
