New home for deadly poison frogs (From Blackpool Citizen)

New home for deadly poison frogs

10:45am Thursday 2nd August 2007

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They are reputed to be the world's deadliest animals - and a pair of them have been spotted on Blackpool's Golden Mile!

Staff at the resort's Sea Life Centre had to use protective gloves and goggles to move the two golden poison dart frogs into their new home in the Centre's Amazone attraction.

Found in a very small area of western Colombia, the frogs - Latin name Phyllobates terribilis - exude a poison so toxic it could kill 100 people or 20,000 mice.

Happily for displays supervisor Carey Duckhouse and her team, the captive-bred pair at Blackpool - christened Pablo and Pilar - are far less dangerous than their cousins in the wild.

"The main source of their poison is a particular beetle that they eat in the Amazon," said Carey. "Without that beetle in their diet their toxicity gradually diminishes.

"Ours are fed mainly on fruit flies, and as they're captive bred the chances are they pose relatively little danger, but when a creature has a reputation like this one you don't take any chances."

Although the Amazone already houses a small tank of bumble-bee poison dart frogs, Pablo and Pilar, who are both under two inches long, have been given a tank of their own.

"We have a very strict protocol to observe at feeding times, with one person locating the frogs before a second person opens the secure feeding hatch, to make sure they can't jump out," said Carey.

"Even though we wear thick gloves each time, we also wash thoroughly afterwards."

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