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Species › Golden Poison Frog
Endangered

Golden Poison Frog

Phyllobates terribilis

About the Golden Poison Frog

The golden poison frog (Phyllobates terribilis) is the most toxic of all poison dart frogs and one of the most toxic vertebrates on Earth, with enough batrachotoxin in a single individual to kill multiple adult humans. Native to a small strip of humid rainforest along the Pacific coast of Colombia, it lives on the forest floor near fast-moving streams, where it is active during the day and relies on its vivid yellow, orange, or pale-green coloration to signal its toxicity to predators.

This species plays a defined role in its forest community as a predator of small invertebrates, including ants, beetles, and mites, which are the dietary source of the alkaloids it sequesters into its own skin. The Emberá people of Colombia have long used the frog's skin secretions to poison blowgun darts, a practice that gave the entire Phyllobates genus its common name. Deforestation driven by agricultural expansion, illegal logging, and coca cultivation has fragmented and reduced its already narrow habitat, and collection for the international pet trade adds further pressure. The IUCN Red List currently classifies Phyllobates terribilis as Endangered.

Things worth knowing

  • Phyllobates terribilis produces batrachotoxin, a steroidal alkaloid that blocks sodium channels in nerve and muscle cells, and it is the only frog species known to carry enough of this toxin to be lethal through skin contact alone.
  • The species is endemic to a small region of Chocó Department in western Colombia, making its entire wild population dependent on the health of one of the world's most biodiverse but heavily threatened rainforest corridors.
  • Unlike most animals that produce their own toxins, Phyllobates terribilis is not innately poisonous; frogs raised in captivity without access to their natural invertebrate diet accumulate little to no batrachotoxin.
  • The Emberá, an Indigenous people of Colombia's Pacific lowlands, have historically rubbed blowgun darts directly across the frog's back to coat them with toxin, a technique that gives the broader group of species their common name of poison dart frogs.
  • Males of this species guard egg clutches on the forest floor and later transport hatched tadpoles on their backs to suitable water sources, a parental behavior that is consistent across the Phyllobates genus.
  • The golden poison frog's natural predator, the snake Leimadophis epinephelus, has evolved a partial resistance to batrachotoxin, one of the few documented cases of co-evolutionary resistance to this class of compound in any vertebrate.
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