Frogs More Deadly than Tigers?

It is true, and yet these frogs are small enough to fit into a teaspoon! These little fellows do not attack men. They do, however, have a very toxic poison in their skin that is used by the Indians to make their hunting arrows lethal.

This tiny, black-and-yellow striped frog is found in the jungles of Chocó in far western Colombia. In this area of high rainfall the Indians catch the frogs by imitating their chee, chee, chee, chee, and then quickly grabbing them when they answer. The frog is held over a fire until the heat causes the poison to drip out, to be collected and smeared on an arrow tip.

It takes 2,400 of these frogs to yield only 30 milligrams of poison​—enough, it is calculated, to kill 3,000,000 mice. After entering a break in a man’s skin, the poison causes a metallic taste in the mouth. The person perspires, there is heart constriction and eventually death. Interestingly, an enzyme destroys the poison upon the frog’s death, so only live frogs yield poison.

Medical science is interested in this poison, as it is similar to the curate poison of South America and the strophanthin poison of South Africa. Both of these have been used in treating heart ailments and in surgery, and now the poison of this frog, kokoá, may prove to have a similar use.

[Picture on page 13]

KOKOÁ FROG