we finally got to see the red version of local poison dart frogs, for which Bastimentos is famous. And to answer the question someone asked last time we posted a poison dart frog picture, no, it isn't dangerous to pick them up...you would have to ingest the frog, or at least lick it, to get poisoned (unless you have an open wound on the hand you pick it up with - then you're a goner. Luckily, Mother Nature does not count mosquito bites as open wounds). The poison is an alkaloid neurotoxin secreted from glands in its back... and those smart kids over at Smithsonian discovered that the poison ingredients are actually sequestered by the frog from small invertebrates that it eats (kind of like how flamingoes get their pigment from the little inverts they eat). So the poison is actually manufactured by ants and mites and little buggies like that, and it is just concentrated in one place by the frogs. Good trick! A tiny frog like this has enough poison to kill about 20 people. You would have to kill the frog and squeeze the poison juice out to use it on your blow-darts though - you can't just rub the arrows on the frog's back (damn).
As it turns out , despite their diminutive size, these little red guys are some of the most poisonous of all poison dart frogs.