In the tropical rainforests of Central and South America, there is a group of colorful frogs, they are relatively small, usually only about 2 cm long, the largest is not more than 6 cm, but they are one of the most toxic animals in nature, they secrete enough venom to kill 20,000 mice, can be called the "poison king" of the animal kingdom, they are poison dart frogs.
Although poison dart frogs are poison kings, they have quietly become a member of the "pet", and the author has learned that the price of a single poison dart frog is at least thousands, and some individual species are even more expensive. This can't help but make people wonder, why would anyone use an animal that can kill people in minutes as a pet? Today we will take a look at the "changeable" poison dart frog.
How poisonous is a poison dart frog?
The poison dart frog is not the name of a type of frog, but a collective name for all the poison dart frog frogs that live in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America, with more than 175 species. The poison dart frog family is a member of the suborder Neofrogs, which contains a variety of frogs that we commonly see, so poison dart frogs are also a type of frog.
Most poison dart frogs have a colorful body color, which researchers believe is a warning color for poison dart frogs, in order to tell other animals: I am poisonous in bright colors.
Strawberry poison dart frog
Of course, not all poison dart frogs are poisonous, and of the less than 200 known species of poison dart frogs, only 55 are poisonous, and their common feature is that their color is more colorful than that of non-poisonous poison dart frogs. Although poisonous dart frogs are poisonous, in fact, they do not have poisonous glands like poisonous snakes, their venom is concentrated in the glands under the skin, and once they encounter danger, they can release the venom, which is similar to toads, and their venom is also milky white.
To judge the toxicity of an animal, half of the lethal amount (LD50) is usually used, that is, the minimum venom dose required to kill more than half of the mice, in mg/kg, the lower the value, the stronger the toxicity, such as the most toxic snake is the inland Taipan snake, its LD50 value is 0.025 mg / kg.
So, how toxic is the poison dart frog?
In fact, the toxicity of different poisonous poison dart frogs is also relatively different, and the LD50 value of the black-legged poison dart frog is 0.57 mg/kg (± 0.04), which is actually worse than most highly venomous poisonous snakes. However, the golden poison dart frog has an LD50 value of 0.002 mg/kg, which is more toxic than the Australian box jellyfish, which is considered one of the most poisonous animals (0.004 mg/kg).
That is to say, the most poisonous poison dart frog, killing an animal weighing 1 kg requires only 0.002 mg of venom is enough, which is many times more venomous than the most poisonous snakes and jellyfish.
Golden poison dart frog
In addition to strong toxicity, the venom of poison dart frogs contains a large amount of poison dart frog alkali, which is a highly toxic natural biological toxin, and has a certain transdermality, which means that poisonous poisonous dart frogs may be poisoned with bare hands, which is much stronger than the venom of poisonous snakes that can only exert toxicity by entering the bloodstream alone.
It is precisely because of this that some indigenous people in South America need to use leaves to pinch when catching poison dart frogs, pinch them and then put them in their mouths with wooden sticks, and then put them on the fire to roast, so as to stimulate the poison dart frogs to secrete milky white venom, and then smear them on arrowheads to make lethal weapons for hunting or fighting. It is known that a small poison dart frog can make 50 deadly arrows.
If poison dart frogs are so poisonous, why do people keep them as pets?
Catching poison dart frogs as pets has now become one of the biggest factors in the decline in the number of poison dart frogs, and these captured poison dart frogs are shipped around the world.
So, aren't these bred ones afraid of poison dart frogs? The answer is obviously no, because poison dart frog's poisonous snake is enough to poison people just by touching, so what is going on? Let's talk about it from two aspects:
First: poison dart frogs are different. As we said above, there are only 55 poisonous poisonous frogs in more than 175 species, and the rest are non-toxic, but their body color is not as beautiful as the poisonous poison dart frog, but compared to other frogs, they are small and look better, so when pets have poison dart frogs, most of them are non-toxic poison dart frog species.
Second: the changeable poison dart frog. Although many poison dart frogs are highly venomous, after being bred in captivity, they will undergo a change - they lose their toxicity. What's going on here? It turns out that poison dart frogs do not have poisonous glands that can secrete venom like most poisonous animals, and the poison glands in their skin glands are obtained by "transporting".
The toxins of poison dart frogs are mainly through eating toxic foods, such as spiders, horses, and other animals, they obtain more than 800 kinds of alkaloids from these foods, and then these toxic alkaloids are used by me, and the reason why poison dart frogs are not afraid of spiders and other toxins is because the proteins in their bodies do not combine with spider toxins, but can carry out chemical synthesis in the body of poison dart frogs, thereby producing poison dart frog alkali stronger than spider toxins.
In captivity, poison dart frogs eat some non-toxic animals, so that they lose the source of toxins, and over time will become non-toxic poison dart frogs, it is because of this, poison dart frogs in many countries are loved by many climbing lovers, and it is precisely because of this that many species of poison dart frogs have become endangered and even critically endangered.
Write at the end
Although poison dart frogs are the most poisonous animals in the world, they are actually the "porters" of toxins, they eat various arthropods, extract more than 800 kinds of alkaloids from them, and then combine in the body, and finally produce highly toxic toxins.
However, in the process of toxin production, these alkaloids will be transported to the skin glands on the body surface of the poison dart frog, and all the chemical combination is basically done here, so the generated poison dart frog will not poison the poison dart frog.
On the whole, many species of poison dart frogs are already in danger, and all of this has the most to do with human capture, such as the most poisonous golden poison dart frog is endangered, the red-banded poison dart frog is critically endangered, etc., so Hunter Jun thinks that this kind of elf hidden deep in the rainforest, or let them stay in the native environment is better, you say?
#箭毒蛙有剧毒, why do people still keep them as pets? #