Food for thought!

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Andrew Gray

Most people know what colourful poison-dart frogs like to eat, tiny invertebrates. But have you ever wondered which animal likes to feed on poison-dart frogs? – do they even have any predators at all? I remember once seeing a superb display in the San Jose Zoo, Costa Rica, sponsored by The Baltimore Aquarium – it had Golden Eyelash Vipers mixed with Poison-dart frogs all living in the same vivarium, it was so cool.

Someone quite knowledgeable also told me that the frogs simply don’t have any predators, but I did once see a beautiful tiny Strawberry-dart Frog caught in a large spiders web. I know frogs in general have many predators, including spiders (pictured), but at the same time it got me thinking…what else might feed on bright poison-dart frogs?

I never took the thought much further. That was until I was walking through one of our zoology storage areas this week and met Gina Allnatt, our Biology Curatorial Trainee. Gina is with us for a year and is working in the museum’s Botany, Entomology, Conservation and Zoology departments. She’s a hard worker, and properly clued up. She blogs at curatorialtrainee.wordpress.com

Gina’s working with Birds at the moment and she showed me one of her favourites – a real beauty from Central America that has the most amazing colours. Check out the clip below of Gina’s favourite bird….and find the answer to that poison-dart frog question!