Golden poison frog

Golden poison frogs live in one small rainforest in Colombia.

It rains a lot there. The frogs hop on the forest floor among the leaves and roots.

Golden poison frogs live in only one small area: the rainy lowland forests near the Pacific coast of Colombia, in South America. It is very wet there, with up to 5 meters of rain a year.

The frogs live on the forest floor, among wet gravel, roots and small young trees, in hilly country about 100 to 200 meters above sea level. They have not been seen climbing, and they need small pools of water for their tadpoles.

The IUCN lists the species only in Colombia, at elevations of about 50 to 400 meters, and in just one to four locations. ADW places the main population along the upper Río Saija drainage near Quebrada Guangui and La Brea on Colombia's Pacific slope, where east and west banks of the river hold separate groups.

The Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles places it in a small area of Pacific coastal Colombia, at the western foot of a spur of the Cordillera Occidental. The habitat is hilly lowland rainforest receiving roughly 1.25 to 5 meters of rain a year, with wet gravel, saplings and relatively little leaf litter. The species is strictly terrestrial and is restricted in range but abundant where it occurs. The map shows Colombia, though the frog lives in only a tiny part of it.

Golden poison frogs eat tiny bugs, like ants.

They catch them with a quick, sticky tongue. Some of the bugs they eat help make their skin poisonous.

Golden poison frogs mostly eat ants, plus other tiny creatures from the forest floor. They catch them with a fast, sticky tongue, and they do not try to eat anything bigger than about a cricket.

Here is something amazing: the frog's poison comes from its food. Scientists think it collects poison from certain small insects it eats in the wild, possibly a tiny beetle. Frogs raised in zoos on crickets and fruit flies are not poisonous at all.

The diet is mainly ants, with other small invertebrates; prey is caught with a rapid strike of the sticky tongue, and items larger than an adult cricket (about 1 inch) are generally ignored.

Toxicity is dietary. Scientists believe poison frogs obtain their alkaloids from particular arthropods they eat in the wild, and ADW notes research pointing to a small beetle as a main source for this species. Frogs kept in human care on crickets and other non-toxic insects lose their toxicity, and frogs hatched in zoos are not poisonous.

Most tiny frogs hide, but golden poison frogs sit out in the open.

They are busy in the daytime. Daddy frogs sing a long, trilling song.

Most small frogs are shy and quick to hide, but golden poison frogs sit out in the open on the forest floor in daylight. Scientists think their powerful poison means they have little to fear.

To attract a female, a male sings a long, musical trill that lasts about 6 to 7 seconds. Frogs also send signals with their bodies: a push-up shows who is boss, and lowering the head means 'you win'.

The species is diurnal and strictly terrestrial, sitting on the ground or a few centimeters up on roots and vegetation. Unlike many dendrobatids, it does not hurry to hide when approached but simply moves away, behavior attributed to its extreme toxicity.

Males court females with a long, melodious trill of about 6 to 7 seconds, followed by a shorter 2 to 3 second version, at roughly 13 notes per second and a frequency near 1,800 hertz. Visual signals include push-ups for dominance and head-lowering for submission. Captive frogs learn quickly, reacting to movement outside their enclosure in expectation of food.

There are not many places left where these frogs live.

People are cutting down parts of their forest. Keeping the forest safe keeps the frogs safe.

The golden poison frog is endangered. It lives in such a small area that losing even a little forest is a big problem. Its forest is being cleared for farms and cattle, logging and mining, and pollution from farming can harm it too.

Some frogs are also taken for the pet trade. Golden poison frogs are bred in captivity, and frogs raised on ordinary insects are not poisonous. Protecting the frog's patch of rainforest is the most important way to help.

The IUCN assessed Phyllobates terribilis as Endangered in 2016 (published 2017) under criterion B, because its range is very small, it is known from only a few locations and the quality of its habitat is declining; the population trend is decreasing. Threats named are agriculture and livestock farming, mining, logging and agricultural pollution, and the species is in international trade as a pet.

The Smithsonian adds that poison frogs generally are hurt by rainforest destruction, the illegal pet trade and the chytrid fungus. Frogs raised in human care on non-toxic insects are not poisonous.