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Poison dart frogs lose their toxicity when raised in captivity

Poison frogs sequester toxins from eating wild ants and mites.

Brightly coloured poison dart frogs in South American rainforests accumulate deadly lipophilic alkaloids by consuming wild formicine ants, beetles, and millipedes. When bred in captivity on a diet of fruit flies and crickets, the frogs fail to synthesize these dietary toxins.

ManuPoisonFrog photograph
Kim Holzmann ยท CC BY-SA 2.5 ยท licence ยท source

Where this comes from

San Diego Zoo

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Tags: poison-dart-frog, amphibian, toxins

Poison dart frogs lose their toxicity when raised in captivity: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Poison frogs sequester toxins from eating wild ants and mites. The figure is taken from San Diego Zoo, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
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