What Is the Deadliest Frog?

The world's most poisonous frog species is the golden poison dart frog. It is not venomous in the sense that it could deliver a deadly bite. Its poison needs to be ingested or injected into the body to be harmful, and without question is extremely lethal. One small frog can produce enough poison to kill 10 adult humans.

  1. Description

    • The golden poison dart frog is a small species that grows to about 1 inch in length and weighs less than an ounce on average. As its name suggests, the frog is often a bright golden color all over its body which is a warning to predators of its deadly nature. In some regions the frogs can be more greenish or orange in color. It has large black eyes with some small, black spots around the snout. Its feet have long, slender toes with small, rounded black tips.

    Range and Habitat

    • The frog is only found in a small range centered around the Andean foothills in coastal Colombia. Its preferred habitat is tropical rain forests with rough, rocky terrain at elevations of 295 to 656 feet above sea level. The frogs are often found near small streams within their habitat, but not near the larger rivers that have been cleared of trees or have overly heavy undergrowth. It is a mostly terrestrial species, found mainly on the ground amid the leaf litter of the forest floor.

    Diet and Predators

    • The golden poison dart frog is a predator and feeds exclusively on small insects. Beetles, crickets, ants and termites are among the most common prey for the small frogs. The animal's toxicity may come from this diet of insects which have themselves eaten toxic forest plants. Dart frogs born and raised in captivity do not produce the toxin. Most predators in the rain forest would be killed if they tried to feed on the frog; only Leimadophis epinephelus, a native snake, can stand the frogs' poison. The other threat to the frogs is native tribes that use the poison on their blow darts for hunting, sometimes killing the frog in the process.

    Life Cycle

    • The frogs live a mainly solitary lifestyle, but have been seen in pairs and certainly get together for breeding purposes. The females lay small clutches of about 20 eggs amid the forest floor's leaf litter. When the eggs hatch, the male carries the larvae on his back to a nearby water source. After a year the young reach sexual maturity and attain adult size. The frogs have been known to live for more than five years in captivity, although wild life span is not certain.