Golden Poison Dart Frog

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Welcome to the next installment of Shit That Can Kill You Fridays!

This week's STCKYF features the Golden Poison Dart Frog.

The Golden Poison Dart Frog is small but mighty, like a terrier, or Gary Coleman. However, unlike a terrier and Gary Coleman, the golden poison dart frog is, as the name gives away, poisonous. Like hella poisonous. They are native to the Colombian rain forest and the coast of Columbia. Like all poison dart frogs, they are very brightly colored. When you are as deadly as these frogs, you don't need to hide. 

Andrew, I have some incredible news for you. Through my research of the Golden Poison Dart Frog, I have stumbled across some amazing numbers. For starters, 1 mg of this frog's poison is enough to kill 10,000 mice. Now I know what you're thinking, that's A TON of mice. That same single milligram can kill 15 humans or 2 African bull elephants. Or if you play with those numbers a little:

10,000 mice = 15 humans

666.7  mice = 1 human

15 humans = 2 African bull elephants

7 humans = 1 African bull elephant

5,000 mice = 1 African bull elephant

You're not going to get science like that out of some nerd text book. Information like that can only be found on these electronic pages. Hey Andrew, did you notice the mice to human conversion? Truncate the decimal and you get 666 mice. 666. The Devil's number. These frogs are the devil. SCIENCE!

So, what is this devil poison? Well, it's batrachotoxin, of course! It is stored in the frog's skin, and uses direct contact as the means of transfer. But, the skin doesn't just have to come into contact with predators or prey to kill. If the skin comes into contact with, oh I don't know, let's say a leaf. There is the potential that the poison will be transferred onto the surface of the leaf. The poison will not readily deteriorate, and now the leaf can kill. So that's good. The poison blocks sodium channels in nerves from transmitting signals, which leaves the muscles in an uncontrollable state of contraction (translation: your muscles won't work no good). A very important muscle, your heart, needs to be able to do its blood pumping thing. If it can't, that's bad news bears. 

For the first time ever in the history of STCKYF, I am going to break rule number 3 of our founding charter, and encourage you to own a Golden Poison Dart Frog as a pet. Now before you berate me with hate mail or call up our hotline (1-800-1STCKYF btw) with death threats, just listen. The frog is only poisonous because of its diet, which is high in alkaloids. Golden Poison Dart Frogs in captivity don't consume alkaloids, and therefore stop producing, and eventually lose their ability to produce batrachotoxin, which renders them harmless. Just don't tell you friends, enemies or even your kids that last part. If they think you have a murderous amphibian on your nightstand, they might start taking you a little more seriously.

*COOL FACT ALERT*

The Choco Embera people of Columbia's rain forest use the poison from the Golden Poison Dart Frog to hunt. They carefully expose the frogs to heat by fire, which causes the frogs to secrete a small amount of poison. Arrow and dart tips soaked in the poison are potent for two years. TWO YEARS.

Stay safe out there.

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Charles R Mercer

Amateur Herpetologist