Poison dart frogs come in all kinds of beautiful colors. But they aren’t trying to make a frog fashion statement. Those bright colors are a warning to predators to tell them the frogs are poisonous. An animal that ignores the warning and tries to eat the frogs can be paralyzed or killed.
Though blue poison frogs live near water, they do not have webbed feet and are not strong swimmers. They have been seen in trees, but they are most often found on the ground. Most frogs lay their eggs in water. The blue poison frog lays its eggs on land in very moist places, like under rocks or logs. Once the eggs hatch, one of the parents carries the tadpoles on his or her back to a small pool of water. There the tadpoles can complete metamorphosis, which takes about 10 to 12 weeks. During this time the frogs are not poisonous. They develop their poison as adults because of the toxins in the ants, termites, caterpillars, beetles and other insects they eat. These poisons are released through glands in the frogs’ skin. In captivity blue poison frogs are not poisonous because they eat a toxin-free diet.