Readers discuss tardigrades, poison dart frogs and more
A taste for toxins
Researchers have identified a protein that may help a poison dart frog collect toxins from food and transport them to the frog’s skin, Erin Garcia de Jesús reported in “How poison dart frogs hoard toxins in their skin” (SN: 2/10/24, p. 4).
Poison dart frogs eat toxic insects. Reader Robert Schier wondered about when frogs eat a nontoxic diet: “Do they not have poisons in their skin?”
In the wild, poison dart frogs chow down on insects that may pick up toxic alkaloid compounds from plants. In captivity, the frogs are fed nontoxic food, and they don’t have poisonous skin, Garcia de Jesús says. Researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute are exploring whether adding alkaloids to frog food can make captive frogs destined for reintroduction to the wild “spicy” again — to ensure the frogs return home with their defense mechanism against predators.