Strawberry Poison Frog

• The mother feeds her tadpoles on eggs: she carries each one to a different bromeliad and for six weeks returns to each in turn to lay an infertile egg for the young to eat, a form of parental care that requires remembering the exact location of several bromeliads in the canopy.
• In the Bocas del Toro archipelago each island has its own colour form, and that diversification into populations separated by a few kilometres of sea is a classic case study of rapid evolution.
• Its toxicity comes from its diet: it accumulates alkaloids from ants and soil mites, and in captivity, fed on crickets, it becomes completely harmless.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (amphibian)

Habitat and environment

Leaf litter and understorey of lowland rainforest of the Central American Caribbean

Size at birth

The female carries each tadpole to a bromeliad and feeds it with unfertilised eggs

Sexual maturity

10 months

Gestation / incubation

Larval development in bromeliads, fed by the mother

Litter / clutch size

5 eggs

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Oophaga pumilio

Best time: All year round on the Caribbean slope of Central America, by day, on the leaf litter; it is most active in the rainy season.

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.