Poison Dart Frogs

Poison Dart Frogs

(by a river)

Poison Dart Frogs are found in the rain forests (jungles) of Central and South America.  They are brightly colored.  Alfred Russel Wallace was an 18th century naturalist who discovered this kind of warning coloration.  The bright colors warn potential predators that the animal tastes bad or is poisonous.  In the case of poison dart frogs they are truly poisonous.  This bright warning coloring is called aposematism.  So the frogs are aposematic. Some bright colored butterflies, like the Monarch Butterfly, also are aposematic.

Some native tribes of South America use the frog skin poisons to dip their darts.  In other words, they boil down the frogs and the skin poisons are then used to dip their darts.  This makes their darts deadly.  The darts are used in blow guns.

There are many species of poison dart frogs and they come in many different colors so I suggest you look them up online and have some fun coloring this drawing.  The photos are of a Golden Dart Frog.  We saw it at the Living Planet Aquarium today...in Draper, Utah.  I used these photos as models for my frogs drawing, however I only left one of the frogs without spots so have fun coloring the spots.   The poison dart frogs come in several sizes but they are generally quite small.  Notice the lichen growing on the log.  Lichen is a living organism that lives in damp environment.  Lichen is made up of algae and fungus.  It can be many different colors.  The tree in the drawing also has lichen for you to color.   Feel free to make it pretty much any color you want.  Lichen can be red-orange, blue-green, black, green, silver, yellow, purple and etc.

The Following Photos are the Golden Dart Frog

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