The most poisonous frog in the world. The most poisonous frogs on the planet

Frogs at home are not that uncommon. However, in recent decades, among wildlife lovers there has appeared new fashion- keeping exotic amphibians that belong to the dart frog family.

The extensive family of dart frogs includes about 160 species of small amphibians. In principle, in appearance they are not much different from the green or brown frogs that we are accustomed to, living in middle lane Russia. However, the need to separate these amphibians into a separate family is caused by a number of serious reasons.

The bright varied colors of these animals - black, blue, yellow, with multi-colored stripes and spots - are distinctive feature families. Some specimens, especially of blue color, they look absolutely fantastic! This is precisely what attracts numerous collectors of exotic animals.

They are very poisonous in the wild, and the Indians of South America have long used poison prepared from them for hunting purposes, lubricating the tips of arrows and darts with it.

It has been proven that poison dart frog toxicity depends on daily diet. IN natural conditions these amphibians eat ants, mites and termites, whose poison gradually accumulates in the body.

But if you change your diet, then poisonous properties organisms are reduced to a minimum.

Depending on the species, exotic frogs have very small sizes: from 1.5 to 7 cm. Representatives of a species such as Dendrobates tinctorius Giant Orange or “orange giant” can grow up to 8 cm in length, but this is the maximum.

For ease of movement along tree trunks, frogs use strong toes, which lack the usual membranes for frogs. In addition, there are tiny suction cups on the fingers, allowing the animals to hold on tightly even on wood slippery from rain.

Females from males within a species can be distinguished by overall size, since females are always larger and slightly fatter.

Life in nature

All members of the family live in a relatively small area of ​​the continent South America. Some varieties are also found in Central American countries. Large populations inhabit tropical forests in the north and west of Brazil, Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname. For example, the blue dart frog is found only in Suriname.

By the way, due to huge commercial demand, the Surinamese population was not so long ago on the verge of complete destruction. The security measures of local authorities played a positive role, and the number of blue tree frogs quickly grew to normal in the natural ecological balance.

Individuals of the species Dendrobates Azureus (“blue or azure tree frog”) live mainly along the banks of small rivers and streams, among stones, grass and trees. Their main food, as already mentioned, is ants, insect larvae, termites, poisonous mites and caterpillars.

Azareus - as they are often called by collectors - usually live in large groups of 40–60 individuals. At the same time, some species, for example, Dendrobates tinctorius azureus (“spotted blue dart frog”), cannot tolerate large quantity fellow tribesmen, vigilantly guard their territory and live exclusively in pairs, each of which is most often “tied” to one tree trunk.

Unlike the jumping green Russian frogs, these amphibians move in small dashes and jerks. Active behavior is observed in daytime; At night, amphibians rest.

These animals are practically not afraid of anyone. And all thanks to its toxicity. Skin secretions contain a potent toxin, which, when released into the blood, causes arrhythmia and even cardiac arrest in animals and humans.

It should be noted that catching these amphibians is prohibited not only for reasons of species conservation, but also for safety reasons. Even light touch exposure to the skin of colorful jungle and savannah inhabitants can cause severe headaches.

Fortunately, terrarium specimens of these South American exotic amphibians are practically safe: bred in special nurseries, they are accustomed to non-toxic food.

Dart frogs at home

House dimensions. Frogs are kept in relatively small horizontal terrariums. For example, for a pair of spotted dendrobates, an area measuring 50x50 cm with a wall height of 30 cm may be sufficient.

Priming- small with minimal calcium content - the terrarium should be moist, but not wet. To do this, it is enough to spray with ordinary water once a day. Only before this procedure the water must be left to stand for a day.

Microclimate. The required maintenance temperature ranges from +22 to +28 degrees Celsius. At night you can lower the temperature to +18 degrees. Therefore, in a warm apartment you can even do without a separate terrarium heater.

Flora. The “house” for exotic frogs must have low plants with large leaves: tradescantia, various types of bromeliads. A piece of tree trunk or a thick one is absolutely necessary for the normal existence of poison dart frogs.

Water must be there all the time. It is recommended to keep it in a coke shell or a small plastic container, constantly refresh it, and prevent contamination.

Blue and spotted “South Americans” quickly get used to their terrarium and go for a walk immediately after spraying, enjoying the moist, warm air.

Fans of Dendrobates claim that their charges are not devoid of intelligence: sometimes they slyly glance through the glass at people, without any fear of them.

These frogs do not know how to croak, they only purr quietly, making rattling sounds, and therefore there is no need to worry about noise in an apartment or house.

Feeding

Problems may arise with the organization of food poisoning for poison dart frogs. In special nurseries they are given them favorite treat- fruit flies. However, at home, these small insects can scatter throughout living spaces, which is not very pleasant. That is why frogs are often fed with caterpillar larvae, springtails. However, if it is possible to feed fruit flies, then you can’t think of a better food.

Reproduction

In captivity, it is possible every 10–12 days, and these amphibians become sexually mature at the age of 1 year.

Females lay a small amount of eggs (3–5 eggs) in various shelters. Such shelters can serve as parts of a coconut shell or even a Petri dish.

Caviar care. Many frog owners advise transferring future offspring to a separate small terrarium with normal temperature parameters. The eggs are watered several times a day with settled water from a pipette.

Care of offspring. After about 3 weeks, tiny tadpoles emerge and are placed in a small plastic container with clean water. You can feed them with regular aquarium food for small fish fry.

This life cycle of future poison dart frogs continues for a surprisingly long time. Metamorphosis (that is, the transformation of a tadpole into a frog) occurs only after 2–3 months! Tiny Asareus can be given fruit flies right away. Both tadpoles and small amphibians born in captivity are not poisonous.

It is believed that keeping representatives of the Dendrobates family is not at all difficult, but observing the behavior of these animals is a very interesting activity. But most importantly: the bright blue color or colorful spots of dart frogs always attract the attention of any person.

Phyllobates terribilis— a small frog from the genus of leaf climbers of the poison dart frog family. One of the most poisonous vertebrates on Earth. I - batrachotoxin.

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This the amphibian is considered one of the most poisonous representatives of the fauna of our planet. Terrible leaf climber is the world's largest poisonous frog.

It’s hard to imagine, but this “monster”, dangerous for all living things, measures only two to four centimeters! What is its danger?

Why is the terrible leaf climber so scary?

The most important feature of the golden frog is that the danger when meeting it does not lie in the teeth, poisonous sting or toxic liquid injected at the moment of danger. This amphibian has a poisonous entire surface of its skin; it is covered with so much toxic substance – batrachotoxin that it is enough to poison more than ten people with a tragic outcome. And it doesn’t matter whether someone tries to offend her or just accidentally touches her - this is deadly! The poison, when it gets on the victim, blocks the nerve channels, has a paralyzing effect on the muscles, including the heart, so death occurs from heart failure or arrhythmia.

Horrible leaf climber (Phyllobates terribilis).

The indigenous peoples of Colombia have used this poison for centuries to lubricate arrowheads, but the most amazing thing is that the toxin retains its terrible properties for up to two years! It is known that if any animal simply sits in the place where the terrible leaf climber was previously, its death is inevitable. One frog may contain only up to one milligram of batrachotoxin, but this amount is enough to kill two elephants. With its bright colors, the frog seems to warn everyone: "Careful - I'm very dangerous!"

A terrible leaf climber, a seemingly ordinary, small harmless frog.

What are the structural features of the golden frog?

Terrible leaf climbers very rarely reach sizes greater than five centimeters in length. One of the features of frogs of this species is the absence of membranes on their legs. But at the tips of their fingers there are disc-shaped extensions, similar to suction cups, with the help of which they climb trees. In addition, these frogs, unlike all other representatives of the genus, have bone plates in the lower jaw - the rudiments of teeth. It is also curious that these amphibians cannot tolerate even short-term hunger strikes. They must eat often, otherwise just three days without food can kill them.

The venom of this harmless amphibian is extremely toxic..

Habitat of Leaf Climbers– tropical rainforests, their lower layer, where they live in small groups and lead a diurnal lifestyle. Usually their “family” consists of four or five females and only one male, because males are distinctly different expressed feeling property and fight with each other for territory. Their confrontation is expressed as follows: the males first compete with their voices, producing short trills from several minutes to several hours, and if no one gives in, then it all ends in a real brawl, reminiscent of freestyle wrestling.

Terrible leaf climbers are caring parents and excellent hunters

Another feature of these amphibians is that they spawn on land, and not in water, like most of their relatives. In dark and damp thickets, the female lays 15 - 30 eggs and considers her mission completed - she leaves. The father remains near the eggs, he protects them, waters them with water, and periodically stirs them with his hind legs. A few days later, when the tadpoles appear, the father places them on his back and heads to the pond.

Terrible leaf climber - poisonous yellow frog.

It takes two or three weeks for the tadpoles to develop into... aquatic environment, and then the baby frogs are born. Now they can go ashore and begin independent life, but still young individuals continue to live for quite a long time with their parents or not far from them. This can continue until the moment when the grown frogs themselves are ready to create their own “family.”

An interesting fact remains that the golden poison frog never uses its terrible poison for hunting, feeding on ticks, small ants, bugs and other insects. By nature, she is a peaceful creature, and her formidable weapon - a poisonous toxin - serves only for self-defense.

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One of the brightest and most beautiful representatives of the “croaking kingdom” is undoubtedly the blue poison dart frog.

Appearance This tropical frog is very attractive: small black dots are randomly scattered on a dark blue background.

If the lighting is weak enough, then the poison dart frog appears much darker, but if there is a lot of light, then the frog seems to phosphorize. In males, the discs on the tips of the toes of the forelimbs are larger. The size of average adult males is only 4 cm. Females are slightly larger at 4.5 cm.

The color is mainly blue (cobalt shade), slightly lighter on the belly and sides. Black dots and round spots dot the entire top part bodies. Such brightly colored frogs are simply adorable. By the way, not only some of them have a similar color, there are others.

They prefer all kinds of piles of stones along the banks of stormy rivers and crystal streams. These blue beauties live in Suriname, directly on the border of French Guiana and Brazil. There are perfectly preserved virgin forests with many rivers here. Frogs can be seen at an altitude of 400 meters above sea level.

According to some reports, this species also lives in Brazil itself. But this information has not yet been confirmed, so it is not known for sure whether blue dart frogs are found in these places. There are a lot of them in Suriname. Local authorities even banned the catching of these magnificently beautiful frogs. Blue dart frogs prefer to live in groups, often numbering up to 50 pieces.

Female poison dart frogs spawn in caves that are located near the water or right on the shore. After 16 days, funny young tadpoles are born. Caring parents immediately transfer them to a pond located nearby. It takes up to 100 days for a tadpole to develop into a real frog. At this time, the poison dart frog faces a lot of dangers, but its bright colors and cleverly designed protection reliably protect the kids.

The skin of the frog, which secretes poison, ensures complete safety and also helps prevent the appearance of fungi and various bacteria. The bright coloring warns everyone that poison dart frogs are very, very poisonous. Of course, if we compare this species with the terrible leaf climber, we can say that it is not so toxic.

Local residents are actively destroying forests, which are the favorite habitat of frogs. Since the habitat of dart frogs is quite small and is constantly decreasing, this amazing creatures threatens complete disappearance. By the way, the IUCN has already classified a third of amphibians, ½ of which are amphibians, as species that may very likely soon completely disappear from the face of our Earth. As you may have guessed, blue dart frogs are also on this list.

IN last years Keeping frogs from the family Dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) in home terrariums is becoming increasingly popular. They attract the attention of fans not only with their daytime lifestyle (you don’t have to become a night owl to watch them), quiet and melodious singing (those who have heard the “home” night concerts of tree frogs will understand me), but also with their bright colors . Another advantage of dart frogs is that they do not trample ornamental plants, which allows them to be kept in decorated terrariums.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FROG

One of the most beautiful poison dart frogs is the blue poison dart frog (Dendrobates azureus). Its Latin name is more correctly translated as azure. Fans often call them simply “Azureuses.” Not so long ago, taxonomists transferred it from a separate species to a color form spotted dart frog(Dendrobates tinctorius azureus). The main color background is bright blue, changing depending on the lighting. The brighter the light, the more fantastic the frog looks. The body is covered with black round spots of various sizes. The pattern formed by them is individual, so with good visual memory you can quickly distinguish one or another individual. Some breeders photograph their pets from various angles, creating a kind of passport.

Female Azureus are larger and plumper than males, maximum length 45 and 40 mm respectively. It is believed that the sucker discs on the “handles” of males have larger size, but this is not always noticeable.

The homeland of the azure dart frog is the savannas in the Sipaliwin district (on the Internet, in materials devoted to the species, this name is often misspelled). This huge territory, covering an area of ​​130,567 km2, is located in the south of Suriname and borders Brazil. Fearing the Portuguese, the Dutch colonists avoided the area. Its development began only in the 20th century. A significant part of the district (about 100,000 km2) is occupied by a reserve of the same name, and more than half of it is savannah, located on hilly terrain at an altitude of 275-400 m above sea level. In many places the soil is rocky, covered with piles of large stones and boulders. It is in such places, along the banks of streams and rivers flowing through the islands virgin forest, and azureus live. Unlike territorial tinctorius (to which they are now classified), azure dendrobats live in large groups (according to the literature, up to 50-80 individuals). The temperature in these places reaches 27°C during the day and drops to 20°C at night. There are two rainy seasons in the year: from December to early February and from late April to mid-August. During this period, 2000–2500 mm of precipitation falls.

If you believe the Internet (unfortunately, not everything published on its open spaces is true), then catching azureus in the wild has long been prohibited. However, even if this is so, there is no need to be particularly sad. In fact, breeding it in captivity has long been mastered, and you can purchase magnificent breeding specimens not only abroad, but also here, and not very expensively. Therefore, it is incorrect to assume that it is amateurs who are the main reason for the decline in the number of azure poison dart frogs. In fact, the main reason (as for many other farmed animals) is the destruction of habitats by the population.

To maintain and breed a group of Azureus of 3-5 individuals, a terrarium measuring 50 x 50 x 50 cm is sufficient. In principle, due to their terrestrial lifestyle, it is more important for them big square terrarium than its height, but it will be more difficult to decorate the container beautifully. Mandatory decorative elements will be a backdrop (background), on which epiphytes can be easily planted. A thick branch or snag (some craftsmen manage to create such “woody” trunks from plastic water pipes and ropes that they can’t be distinguished from living ones!), or a small pond (it’s better if it’s equipped with a low-power pump) wouldn’t hurt either. Plants with large leaves, pieces of wood and stones can be used as a place for animals to sit. A little about the choice of stones. They must be free of various inclusions, rust, and contain no calcium (to make sure of this, drop a little vinegar on the stone: if bubbles of carbon dioxide appear in the puddle, then such a stone is unsuitable). Stones with calcium will not harm the frogs themselves, but the increasing hardness of the water in the terrarium can destroy mosses and some other plants. In order for the azureus to have a place to hide, Petri dishes are usually placed in the terrarium. They are covered on top with halves of coconut shells with holes made in the walls or plastic pots, also with holes on the sides. Place a flat pebble or a piece of wood into the cup itself and pour in a little water.

Since the terrarium is warm and humid, many moisture-loving plants grow well in it: small vines, some bromeliads, various ground cover species. You should not plant atmospheric bromeliads and other plants that cannot tolerate stagnant air in it.

To increase humidity, the terrarium is sprayed 1-2 times a day, during the breeding season - more often and more abundantly. Automatic watering and steam supply to the terrarium greatly simplifies the life of a terrarium owner. Necessary equipment can be purchased at pet stores. The devices are controlled by digital timers.

POISONOUS OR NOT?

Contrary to popular belief, domestic dart frogs are not poisonous. The fact is that, unlike toads and many other tailless amphibians, they do not know how to synthesize poisons, but simply accumulate toxins contained in their main food - ants of the genera Brachymyrmex and Paratrechina, as well as mites and beetles. The lack of such food in captivity leads to the fact that even wild-caught animals lose their toxicity over time.

WHAT TO FEED?

Food for frogs in captivity can include fruit flies, small tropical woodlice, springtails, and wax moth larvae. All these foods are successfully bred at home. The main thing is not to let the process take its course, otherwise you risk losing feed crops.

Having gotten used to the new place, poison dart frogs stop being wild and wander around the terrarium almost all day. The duration of walks directly depends on air humidity. Frogs become most active immediately after the rain. They wake up very early. So, my pets come out of hiding at about 5-6 am, when the room is almost dark, and the lights turn on at 10 am. In the evening, about two hours before the lights turn off, the azures crawl into shelters known only to them, where they sleep until the morning.

If at least one pair is formed from the frogs you purchased, then you are lucky. Approximately in one year old they will begin to multiply. The male's voice resembles a very quiet murmur, almost inaudible outside the terrarium. In nature, females lay eggs in caves, and in captivity they use coconut shelters, plastic jars from photographic film (they become more and more difficult to get every year) or similar containers of a suitable size. Among Azureus, matriarchy reigns, so the female plays the main role in obtaining offspring. Ready for spawning, she tries in every possible way to seduce her chosen one, placing her “hands” on his “shoulders” and persistently pushing him to the place where eggs are laid. After some time, the pair hides in the nest. There are no more than 6 eggs in a clutch, usually 2-3.

Embryos develop surprisingly slowly. According to literature data, the development of eggs at a temperature of 22° C lasts 18 days. For me, this process at a temperature of 24-26 ° C lasts about 26 days. The tadpoles lie completely motionless for several days, it seems that they have died, but gradually they begin to swim and eat regular aquarium food. The transformation of a tadpole into a frog occurs after 60-100 days. In nature, parents transfer their offspring to bodies of water, but in terrariums, owners usually select the eggs immediately after spawning and place them in an incubator. To prevent the eggs from drying out, pour a little water into the container with the eggs so that it does not cover the eggs, adding a drop of an antifungal drug.

The first food for newborn frogs (metamorphs) are springtails and small fruit flies.

As you can see, keeping these amazing creatures is not that difficult, and observing their behavior will not only broaden your horizons, but will also bring you many joyful moments.