Poison arrow frog

Scientific name: Dendrobates spp

Country: Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Guyana, Colombia, Brazil, Surinam

Continent: North America, South America

Diet: Insects- insectivore, especially ants- myrmevore. The ants supply some of the frogs' toxins. In Bristol Zoo Gardens, the frogs are fed on hatchling crickets, fruit flies and, during the summer, aphids.

Food & feeding: Carnivore

Habitats: Tropical rainforest

Conservation status: Vulnerable (blue poison arrow frog)

Relatives: Marbled milk frog, Thai tree frog

Description: Poison arrow (or dart) frogs are brightly-coloured toxic amphibians in the family Dendrobatidae. Their bright colouration serves as a warning to potential predators that this frog is harmful to eat. The frogs' toxins are concentrated in its skin but these are not one of the three or four species that are thought to be dangerous to humans. They are small, rarely more than 4 cm long.

Lifestyle: These species live in permanently damp leaf litter on the forest floor. They are most active in mornings and evenings.

Family & friends: Male poison arrow frogs are good fathers.

Keeping in touch: Males have bright colours that they use to display with. Each male defends a small patch of the forest floor, where he will chirp and trill, while showing off his colours. If his display is good enough he will eventually attract a female into his patch.

Growing up: They can breed all year round if food is plentiful, and the females will lay around six to ten eggs in a secluded area on the land or on a leaf. They are fertilised by the male, who then assumes most of the responsibility for caring for the clutch. He guards them and keeps them moist by transporting water from a pool. When the tadpoles are ready to hatch (usually three to four weeks), he allows them to wriggle onto his back and he carries them to a suitable pool of water. This may be a small pool on the forest floor or in the leaf bract of a bromeliad plant several metres off the ground. For the next month or so, the tadpoles feed on algae and dead insects in the pool until they are ready to change (or 'metamorphose').

Strawberry poison arrow frogs differ in that the female will lay infertile eggs in the pools for the tadpoles to eat. In the same way as British common frogs, they first develop hind legs, then front legs, and their tails begin to be absorbed, and then they climb out of the pool to live on land. Their mouthparts change and they no longer graze on algae and dead matter (detritus). On land, they hunt and catch small invertebrates using their short protrudable tongue. They mature in about a year and can live for up to 15 years.

Poison arrow frogs are so named because the poison from their skins is taken by Colombian Indians to smear onto the tips of their blow-pipe darts and arrows to help kill animals when hunting. In fact, only a very few species are used for this purpose, but this common name has been applied to their close relatives.

Conservation news: The blue poison arrow frog is at risk in the wild due to habitat loss. This species is on a European breeding programme.

The poison arrow frogs at Bristol Zoo Gardens belong to three species: Dendrobates azureus (blue poison arrow frog), Dendrobates pumilio (strawberry poison arrow frog) and Dendrobates leucomelas (orange-banded poison arrow frog).