The golden poison frog of Colombia is one of the most poisonous animals on the planet, even though it is barely two inches long. Its skin glows a bright yellow as a warning. Predators that have learned about this frog know to leave it alone. Those that haven’t make a very small, very final mistake.
The frog’s poison is called batrachotoxin. It seeps from glands all over the skin. Just touching one isn’t safe without gloves, which is why scientists who study them use careful tools. Local people in Colombia once rubbed the poison on the tips of their blowpipe darts when hunting in the rainforest.
The strangest part is that the frog doesn’t make its own poison. It builds it up from the small ants, mites and beetles it eats in the wild. Frogs raised in zoos eat different food, so over time they lose their poison and become harmless. The same frog can be deadly or safe, depending on what was for lunch.
