For most animals, their colouring is not an aesthetic choice, but a matter of life and death. The ability to evade the wary eyes of a predator by blending into the surrounding environment has arisen again and again within the animal kingdom – and with some necessity. But there are some critters that blatantly waive this rule, and though they look good enough to eat, some of them can kill you with a single touch. These are the famous poison arrow frogs of South and Central America.
Frogs of the Dendrobatidae (meaning ‘tree walker’) family walk a
different path than most: they use bright colours to advertise their presence to
the world. They rely on the fact that most predators recognize such colouring as
a signal that the animal contains a deadly poison, and thus is not at all
palatable. Many species contain alkaloids in their skin – a group of plant
chemicals.
bizarre result of this is that frogs raised in captivity and deprived of their
normal diet grow up to be completely harmless