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🐾 Poison Dart Frogs
Tiny frogs so bright they look painted — and their colours are a warning to stay away.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
📍 Where is it?
📍 Amazon Rainforest, Peru — see it on the big map →
Deep in the rainforests of Central and South America live some of the smallest and brightest frogs on Earth. Poison dart frogs can be blue, yellow, red or orange, with spots and stripes like they were painted with a tiny brush.
Their bright colours are a warning sign. It says: do not eat me! Their skin makes a poison that can hurt animals that try to bite them. Long ago, hunters in the rainforest used the poison on the tips of their darts for hunting — that is how the frogs got their name.
But here is the clever part. The frogs do not make the poison themselves. It comes from the tiny insects and ants they eat. Frogs that grow up in a zoo, eating different food, are not poisonous at all. The bright blue frog in the photo is a kind that lives in the rainforest of Suriname, a country north of the Amazon.
🤩 Wow fact!
A poison dart frog is only about as long as your thumb — most are just 2 to 5 centimetres long.
🧠 Quiz time!
Where does a poison dart frog's poison come from?