How do poison dart frogs actually use their toxins?

Question

How do poison dart frogs actually use their toxins?

Answer 1

when they sense danger, they emit a whitish secretion on their skin which is very toxic when yuou touch it

Answer 2

The poison is produced from glands on it's skin. It uses it to protect it's self from animals who try to eat it. The animals that eats it, or tried to eat it will die shortly after the poison is in it's body.

The frog would have to be lucky to survive though. D:

Answer 3

they secrete them through their glands - basically through their skin. if an animal eats them - death to them or maybe sickness = learned lesson/response to  not to eat this certain frog

Answer 4

Most of the really small colorful frogs are poisonous in the wild. But these frogs tend to lose a lot, if not all, of their toxicity when bred in captivity (even if they were originally caught in the wild!). This is largly due to the lack of variety that these critters would normally be getting in their diet in the wild. A huge amount of their toxicity is because of an ant that they eat in the wild which no sane pet owner gives them in captivity.

Despite it's label as the most poisonous of frogs, even the bright yellow p. terriblis isn't so poisonous that a human could die by just touching it in the wild.

The poison cannot permeate our skin.

If, on the other hand, there is a cut on the skin, however, before you have time to say 'oops that frog is poisonous' you're a goner, at least in the case of p. terriblis! Same goes for if you forget after playing with this pretty frog and accidentally put your hand in your mouth!

Not all the colorful frogs are poisonous.

Some imitate the poisonous ones with color, and apparently the warning is enough to protect them from potential predators,  a tactic called aposematic coloration.

Dendrobatids include some of the most toxic animals on Earth. The two-inch-long (five-centimeter-long) golden poison dart frog has enough venom to kill 10 grown men. Indigenous Emberá people of Colombia have used its powerful venom for centuries to tip their blowgun darts when hunting, hence the genus' common name.

Poison Dart Frogs

Taxonomy

Order: Anura

Family: Dendrobatidae

Description

Vibrant but toxic, poison arrow frogs range from less than an inch to two and a half inches in body length. There are more than 100 species of poison dart frogs, varying in color and pattern. The black and green species has black spots, the strawberry or blue jeans frog is all red with blue legs, the yellow-banded species appears painted with yellow and black. Color shades vary among frogs within a species. It is the skin that contains the frog's poison.

These beautiful colors are warnings to potential predators that the frogs are poisonous. Other species, such as monarch butterflies, sport bright colors to advertise their toxicity. Several species of non-poisonous frogs evolved with similar coloring to avoid being eaten. Some scientists think that the reticulated pattern of the frogs also acts as camouflage among the forest shadows.

Distribution and Habitat

Poison dart frogs live in the rainforests of Central and South America and on a few Hawaiian islands.

Diet in the Wild

Poison dart frogs feed mostly on spiders and small insects such as ants and termites, which they find on the forest floor using their excellent vision. They capture their prey by using their long sticky tongues.



Zoo Diet

They are fed small crickets daily.

Reproduction

Male frogs go through an elaborate ritual to attract a mate. The males vocalize, a loud trill sound, to attract females. Once the courtship ritual is complete, the females deposit dozens of eggs on leaves. The eggs are encased in a gelatinous substance for protection against decay.

During the two-week development period, the male returns to the eggs periodically to check on them. Once the tadpoles hatch, they swim onto the male’s back and are attached by a mucus secretion, which keeps them from falling off. The male carries them to a place suitable for further development, such as wet holes in broken trees and branches, little ponds, wet coconut shells, and even in tin cans and car tires. Tiny pools of water that collect in bromeliads are also used by some species.

Once at their final destination, the tadpoles are on their own. They need an additional three months to metamorphose into small frogs.

Life Span

They may live more than ten years in captivity.

Status

Some poison dart frogs are endangered due to habitat loss, which is causing numbers to decline among many species.

The possibility of new medications from these frogs' secretions is being explored.

Fun Facts

Poison dart frogs, also called poison arrow frogs, are so named because some Amerindian tribes have used their secretions to poison their darts. Not all arrow frogs are deadly, and only three species are very dangerous to humans. The most deadly species to humans is the golden poison arrow frog (Phyllobates terribilis). Its poison, batrachotoxin, can kill many small animals or humans. These frogs are found in Colombia along the western slopes of the Andes. Arrow frogs are not poisonous in captivity. Scientists believe that these frogs gain their poison from a specific arthropod and other insects that they eat in the wild. These insects most likely acquire the poison from their plant diet.

In 1999 a Zoo pathologist published his discovery of a then-mysterious infection that was afflicting and eventually killing poison arrow frogs and white’s tree frogs. Through his effort, cutaneous chytridiomycosis was documented for the first time as a vertebrate parasite. The veterinarians along with keepers and pathologists also developed a treatment for the chytrids. The same antifungal that is used to kill athletes’ foot in humans can be used with the frogs and toads.

Answer 5

The Poison Arrow Frogs of South America have the "toxins" within their skin.  This makes them taste bad and the predator that tries to eat one can become sick or even die.  They are brightly colored to "advertise" this fact.

The natives use them by cooking them over a fire and catching the drippings from the frogs skin in a vessel.  They then dip the tips of their blow-gun darts in the liquid.  When they shoot a small animal, bird or mammal, the poison on the dart tip works its way into the blood stream and drugs or kills the prey.  Then the native hunter can get it and take it home to feed his family.

Answer 6

Then you try to eat them.