How Does the Strawberry Dart Frog Get its Poison?

by Arsema Biruk, age 10

Strawberry dart frogs are a type of poisonous frog that can be lethal to humans. They can be found in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama. Strawberry dart frogs spend most of their time on the forest floor or in tropical rainforests. You may also see them climbing lianas, which are woody vines, or trees.

Strawberry dart frogs are active during the day, just like humans. Strawberry dart frogs are barely 3 centimeters in size, so they are hard to see. They can also come in many different colors; some are completely red, blue, yellow, green or orange, while others have black stripes or dots. There are 15 to 30 color variations.

Those colors help scare off predators and attract females. Researchers say females look for males with the same colors as their parents. Females are less attracted to poison dart frogs with different colors, likely for survival reasons.

Dart frogs earned their name because indigenous people used their poison to make poisonous darts in the past. If you eat the frogs or the poison gets into an open wound, it can be very dangerous. The toxins on their skin attack the heart and nervous system. Victims will experience convulsions, paralysis and eventually death.

In fact, strawberry dart frogs do not make all their poison themselves. They get their poison by eating ants, centipedes, mites and other creatures. They eat up to 14 times per hour. Without the proper diet, they will often lose their poison.

[Sources: Adopt Rainforest; Amphibian Species of the World]