Poison Tree or Poison Arrow frogs receive their name because South American Indians use toxic alkaloids contained in the skin of certain species to poison the tips of their blowgun darts when hunting animals for use in religious ceremonies.
Most members of their family are brilliantly colored, presumably as a warning to predators. This species , Dendrobates auratus , is common in the tropical forests of Panama and Costa Rica.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Photo by Marcos A. Guerra. (c) 1991 Smithsonian Institution
The file:pfrog.gif is at Internet address: sunsite.unc.edu/70/.pub/multimedia/pictures/smithsonian/gif89a/science-nature/pfrog.gif
