L k—Don
’t Touch!
en
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The frog at left is small enough to
perch on your finger (see actual
size below). But you would want to
think twice about letting it do that.
Why? Because it’s a poison frog.
All frogs have glands in their skin
that ooze slimy stuff called mucus
(MYOO-kuss). The mucus protects
the skin from germs and also keeps
it moist. Also, some chemicals
in the mucus may taste bad to
certain hungry birds and other
predators. As you can guess,
though, a poison frog has other
glands with chemicals that are—
well, poisonous!
NORTH
AMERICA
where
poison frogs
live
Next to a tiny strawberry poison frog,
a dewdrop on a leaf looks like a giant
blob of water.
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SOUTH
AMERICA
GREGORY BASCO/GTPHOTO (20-21, 21 INSET)
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Here’s looking at you, kid!
This golden poison frog
seems to have a fearless
stare. Ąnd why shouldn’t
it? It’s the most poisonous
poison frog of all.
TOO TERRIBLE
TO TOUCH
Many kinds of poison frogs
are toxic (poisonous) enough
to paralyze or even kill most
predators. And the deadliest
of all is the golden poison frog.
The terrible toxins in just one of
these tiny terrors
would be enough to
kill ten people!
Hunters in some
South American
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tribes have figured out how
to use the frog’s toxin. Without hurting the frog, a hunter
wipes the tips of sharp, wooden splinters (darts) on its back
to coat each one with slimy
Ą hunter carefully
holds down a poison frog
and rubs a dart across its
back (above). Then he loads
the poison-tipped dart into
his blowgun and gets ready
to shoot (right).
toxin. When he comes across
prey, he loads a poison dart
into one end of a special hollow stick called a blowgun.
Then he aims it at his target
and blows forcefully into the
other end to shoot out the
dart. And now you know why
many people call these frogs
“poison dart frogs.”
THOMAS MARENT/ARDEA (22T); MARK MOFFETT/MINDEN PICTURES (22M) >; SERGI REBOREDO/PHOTOSHOT (22B); PETE OXFORD/NPL/
MINDEN PICTURES (23T) >; PIOTR NASKRECKI/MINDEN PICTURES (23BL); FRANCESCO TOMASINELLI/SCIENCE SOURCE (23BR) >
POISON PĄRENTS
Poison frogs may cause
other creatures to steer
clear. But they’re very caring
to their own young. When
it’s time for a pair to mate,
the first step is to find a
moist egg-laying spot. After
the eggs are laid, one
or the other parent
Ą phantasmal
guards the eggs and
poison frog keeps
makes sure they
close watch
don’t dry out. The
over its eggs.
parent will even pee
on the eggs if needed
to keep them moist.
all together, a few
After a couple of weeks,
at a time, or one by one—to
tadpoles (baby frogs) hatch
a small stream or pool. That
out of the eggs. But the tadpool may even be way up
poles need to get to a body
high in the treetops, in a cupof water to continue growshaped plant called a
ing. How? They wriggle onto bromeliad (broh-MEE-lee-ad).
their parent’s back to go by
The growing tadpoles may
Piggyback Express! The par- feed on insects or tiny creaent then carries them—
tures and plant bits in the
water. Or the mother frog
may lay unfertilized eggs (no
babies inside) in the water
for the tadpoles to eat. In a
few months, metamorphosis (meh-tuh-MOR-fuh-sus)
changes the tadpoles into
their adult body forms.
The three-striped poison
frog at left hauls tadpoles
on its back to water. The
pool below, formed by a
plant’s leaves, is the nursery
for a harlequin poison frog
tadpole.
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strawberry
m
r
o
l
e
o
DEĄDLY
C
There are 184 species of poison frogs, and they come
in every color of the rainbow. (Even frogs of the same kind
may look very different, depending on where they live.)
The bright colors are a clear warning to predators: Now you
see me—better leave me be! Scientists
think the toxins come from the beetles,
ants, and mites the frogs eat in the wild.
harlequin
green-andblack
bumblebee
strawberry
harlequin
red-banded
greenand-black
granular
from only a
h
t
g
n
le
in
e
ng
heir
oison frogs ra ple inches. But despite t
a cou
punch. So if
l
u
rf
e
w
o
half-inch to
p
a
ny can pack
rest home,
fo
in
ra
ir
tiny size, ma
e
h
t
yourself in
!=
you ever find open and your hands off
es
keep your ey
P
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MICHAEL TURCO (24TL, 25MR, 25BR) >; THOMAS MARENT/MINDEN PICTURES (24TC, 24BL); ROLAND SEITRE/MINDEN PICTURES
(24TR) >; MICHAEL FOGDEN/DRK PHOTO (24BR); ART WOLFE (25T); THOMAS MARENT/ARDEA/ANIMALS ANIMALS (25ML)
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