Dyeing Poison Frog

The dyeing poison frog is one of the largest poison dart frogs, native to the rainforests of northeastern South America across Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and northern Brazil. Its pattern is highly variable between populations, typically bold black markings over yellow, white, or blue ground color, including the form long known as the blue poison frog before taxonomists folded it into this same species. Its common name comes from a traditional practice among the Wayana people of plucking feathers from live green parrots and rubbing the wound with the frog's skin secretions, which was said to cause the regrown feathers to grow in yellow or red rather than green. Alkaloid toxins in its skin come from its diet of ants and other small arthropods, and it is a widely kept terrarium species due to its striking appearance and diurnal activity.