So, Seriously–If You Use Poison Dart Frog Poison to Kill Your Prey, Why Don’t You Die From Eating It?
Martin: As a Stay at Home Dad My kid and I spend a lot of time at the Museum of Life and Science. The last time we were there we were lucky enough to see them feeding the Poison Dart Frogs. I asked the lady who was doing the feeding this question and they did not know the answer, so I put it to you…
If you use the poison of the Poison Dart Frog to kill your prey, then consume said prey for dinner, why don’t you then die from the poison? If this poison is so potent it can kill several people I would have thought that there would be enough left in the prey animal to cause you harm, but since the tribes in South America have been using this for eons it is obviously safe. How?
Curtis: The frog with the highest concentration and deadliest poison is the Phyllobates terribilis (actually one of three Phyllobates frogs), generally found in the rainforests of South America. While the frog kills anything that eats it, it’s poison is routinely used by the Embera Indians of western Colombia as the extra special ingredient in blow gun darts. To understand how they are able to then eat the animals killed by the toxin, we have to understand the toxin itself.
The toxin is a steroid alkaloid, batrachotoxin. The toxin is nearly an instant killer, attacking the central nervous system and causing paralyzation and heart failure. The poison prevents nerves from electrically transmitting to muscles. But it does have a weakness. Maximum activity for the toxin runs at about 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.)
British naval Captain Charles Stuart Cochrane (1) wrote in his journal while travelling through Columbia in 1823-24, “A tiger when hit, runs ten or a dozen yards, staggers, becomes sick, and dies in four or five minutes. A bird is killed as with a bullet; and the arrow and wounded part of the flesh being cut out, the reminder is eaten without danger.” I’m guessing they probably cooked the meat first. Since the tribes of South America don’t keep very detailed records, there is no real way to tell if any untimely deaths have been caused by not properly handling the toxin.
Additional fun fact: the frogs don’t make their own toxin. They eat beetles, insects and plants which contain the poison. The frogs just store it up because of a genetic immunity. The same frogs, raised in a zoo or captivity rather than the rain forest, aren’t poisonous at all.
(1) Cochrane, Capt. Charles Stuart 1825. Journal of a residence and travels in Colombia during the years 1823-1824. In two volumes. London, Henry Colburn, vol. 1, xvi + pp. 524.; vol. 2, xvii + pp. 517.
