The Most Poisonous Animal in the World - Phyllobates Terribilis

Take a guess at what the most toxic animal in the world is. Could it be a small ringed snake or octopus? Or maybe it’s some creepy-crawly bug found under your bed. Actually, it’s a small amphibian found in the Amazon Rainforest of the Pacific Coast of Colombia, called the Golden Poison Dart Frog. They might be small in size, growing up to 5 centimeters, or roughly 2 inches, but each frog has enough venom to kill 10 full-grown humans.

The Golden Poison Dart frog comes in several colors, from pale green to golden yellow to orange, and even some colors in between. Their coloration warns potential predators that they are highly toxic. In fact, most predators have learned to avoid these frogs, and the only predator of this species is Leimadophis epinephelus, a species of snake that has developed a resistance to the frogs’ poisons, but still is not completely immune.

This particular species of frog spends most of its time in the rainforest’s trees, feeding on the insects living there. The Golden Poison Dart Frog is the most voracious eater among the poison dart frogs, preying upon many different types of insects, including ants, termites, beetles, and flies. Scientists theorize that the frogs get their toxicity from what they eat, particularly from the Choresine beetle species. A frog caught in the wild will retain its batrachotoxins, or dart frog poisons, for years. Dart frogs raised in captivity however are not toxic, because they are fed crickets, insect larvae, and flies non-native to the rainforest.

This species of frog has alkaloid poisons, which upon entering the bloodstream prevents nerves from sending electrical impulses. Soon after, muscles seize up and fibrillate, leading to heart failure and death. The type of alkaloid poison depends on what the frogs eat in different parts of the rainforest, because of the different insect species in different places. The average amount of poison per frog is one milligram; therefore one gram of this poison would be sufficient to kill at least 10,000 people.

A powerful painkiller 1000 times more potent than morphine has already been developed by medical researchers with this dart frog poison. Anti-venom made from the frog’s poison is also being developed for the treatment of venomous snake bites and so on. The Golden Poison Dart Frog is currently endangered, due to the depletion of the rainforest and their illegal capture and selling on the black market. If these frogs were to go extinct, the world would lose a truly interesting and fascinating creature.