Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius is found only in the south­ern­most part of the South Amer­i­can coun­try of Suri­name in a re­gion known as the Sipali­wini Sa­van­nah. (Sil­ver­stone, 1975; Dur­rell, 2001; )

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical

Habi­tat

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius in­hab­its small iso­lated for­est areas sur­rounded by the dry, prairie-like Sipali­wini Sa­van­nah at el­e­va­tions from 315 to 430 m. How­ever, the for­est habi­tat of D. tinc­to­rius is rather humid and warm with tem­per­a­tures rang­ing from 22 to 27 de­grees Cel­sius dur­ing the day to 20 de­grees Cel­sius at night. Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius prefers a dark, moist en­vi­ron­ment, liv­ing only near small streams among moss-cov­ered rocks. It typ­i­cally re­mains on the ground, but has been found in trees at heights of up to 5 m. (Dur­rell, 2001; Ham­lett, 2002; Sil­ver­stone, 1975)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• rainforest

• Range elevation

  315 to 430 m

  1033.46 to 1410.76 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius is a mid-sized den­dro­batid frog weigh­ing about 3 grams and hav­ing a length rang­ing from 3 to 4.5 cm. Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius is brightly col­ored, and this col­oration serves as a warn­ing to would-be preda­tors of its poi­so­nous prop­er­ties. In fact, its skin is cov­ered with a myr­iad of glands that se­crete al­ka­loid poi­sons ca­pa­ble of par­a­lyz­ing, even killing preda­tors. The col­oration of D. tinc­to­rius is an azure-blue hue on the limbs, a sky-blue on its dor­sal sur­face, and a darker blue on its ven­tral sur­face. An ir­reg­u­lar pat­tern of dark blue and black spots of var­i­ous sizes cover this back­ground col­oration with the ma­jor­ity of the spot­ting lo­cated on its back as well as head. The pat­tern of spots is unique to each frog and thus serves as a "fin­ger­print" to dif­fer­en­ti­ate be­tween in­di­vid­u­als. Some­times, the ven­tral sur­face of the body has a dark blue or black mid­belly stripe. Its skin is gen­er­ally smooth, but often por­tions of the pos­te­rior ven­tral sur­face and thighs have a gran­u­lar tex­ture. Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius has four toes per foot; each of which has a wide, flat­tened tip and a suc­tion cup pad used to help it grip in the slip­pery en­vi­ron­ment it in­hab­its. This species is also char­ac­ter­ized by its hunch-backed pos­ture. (Dur­rell, 2001; Goin, et al., 1978; Ham­lett, 2002; "Blue Poi­son Dart Frog", 2002; Sand­meier, 2003; Sil­ver­stone, 1975)

Males and fe­males are quite sim­i­lar in ap­pear­ance. How­ever, the fe­male is slightly larger and more plump than the male, with her av­er­age body length about 4.5 cm and his only 4 cm. Males have larger toe-tips, specif­i­cally those on the sec­ond, third, and fourth dig­its. In ad­di­tion, these toe-tips are heart-shaped in males and round in fe­males. On the other hand, the young of D. tinc­to­rius are much dif­fer­ent from the adults. The tad­pole lar­vae are char­ac­ter­ized by a long tail used for lo­co­mo­tion in their free-swim­ming ex­is­tence. The tad­poles have a head-body and on av­er­age are ap­prox­i­mately 10 mm in length, 6 mm of which is made up by the tail. The young also lack legs and breathe by means of gills in­stead of lungs. (Blake and Sher­riff, 2003; Dur­rell, 2001; Sil­ver­stone, 1975)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry
• poisonous

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Average mass

  3 g

  0.11 oz

• Range length

  3 to 4.5 cm

  1.18 to 1.77 in

De­vel­op­ment

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius un­der­goes a meta­mor­pho­sis in which it starts out as an egg, then hatches from the egg as a tad­pole, and fi­nally de­vel­ops into an adult frog. The in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod for the eggs is about 14-18 days. After hatch­ing, the tad­pole meta­mor­phoses into an adult in 10 to 12 weeks. The process of sex as­crip­tion in D. tinc­to­rius is still un­known. (Dur­rell, 2001; "Blue Poi­son Dart Frog", 2002)

• Development - Life Cycle
• metamorphosis

Re­pro­duc­tion

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius breeds sea­son­ally in the wild, usu­ally dur­ing the rainy sea­son (Feb­ru­ary and March). In cap­tiv­ity, it is known to breed year round. Males po­si­tion them­selves on a rock or a leaf and pro­duce quiet calls in order to at­tract a fe­male. Fe­males then fol­low these calls to lo­cate the male. Once found, fe­males fight ag­gres­sively over the male. Af­ter­wards, the vic­to­ri­ous fe­male be­gins the courtship rit­ual by gen­tly stroking his snout and dor­sal sur­face with her forelegs. Courtship may also in­volve chas­ing and wrestling be­tween the male and fe­male. Fi­nally, the male leads the fe­male to a se­cluded lo­ca­tion of his choos­ing near a water source to mate and lay eggs. How­ever, the mat­ing process of D. tinc­to­rius is still not en­tirely un­der­stood. Un­like most frog species, which prac­tice the mat­ing rit­ual of am­plexus, males of D. tinc­to­rius do not dis­play this be­hav­ior. (Dur­rell, 2001; Ham­lett, 2002; "Blue Poi­son Dart Frog", 2002)

The par­tic­u­lar mat­ing sys­tem of D. tinc­to­rius is un­known, but many close rel­a­tives are polyg­y­nous (one male mates with sev­eral fe­males). For in­stance, the green poi­son dart frog, Den­dro­bates au­ra­tus, is polyg­y­nous. (Sum­mers, 1990)

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius are soli­tary an­i­mals, in­ter­act­ing with oth­ers only dur­ing ter­ri­to­r­ial fight­ing and breed­ing. Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius usu­ally breed in the months of Feb­ru­ary and March pro­duc­ing 5-10 off­spring per clutch. The eggs laid by the fe­male hatch after about 14-18 days, and the ju­ve­nile tad­pole ma­tures into an adult in 10-12 weeks. The total time to in­de­pen­dence for the frogs is about 84-102 days and both sexes reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at 2 years of age. Un­like most frogs which lay their eggs in water, the eggs of D. tinc­to­rius are placed in con­sis­tently-moist, mossy areas un­der­neath rocks or logs. (Dur­rell, 2001; "Poi­son-Ar­row Frog", 2003)

• Key Reproductive Features
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • external
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  This species breeds once yearly during the rainy season.

• Breeding season

  February-March

• Range number of offspring

  5 to 10

• Range time to hatching

  14 to 18 days

• Range time to independence

  84 to 102 days

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  2 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  2 years

The fe­male of D. tinc­to­rius lays her eggs in the ter­ri­tory of the male which he ag­gres­sively de­fends. Both the fe­male and male moisten and clean the place where the eggs will be laid. The male usu­ally is the pri­mary care­taker of the eggs, but it is not un­com­mon for the fe­male to tend to them as well. As the pri­mary care­taker, the male not only looks after the eggs, but he also makes sure to keep them moist by ex­cret­ing water on them. After about 14-18 days, the eggs hatch and emerge as tad­poles. The male then car­ries the tad­poles on his back from the egg-lay­ing land site to a rel­a­tively small pool of water such as that within the cen­ter of a bromeliad plant, a leaf axil, or a tiny tree hole. Some­times the fe­male also helps in this trans­porta­tion of the tad­poles. Of­ten­times, the tad­poles are placed in sep­a­rate pools as they are can­ni­bal­is­tic. After this trans­port, the male's care of the young ends. The fe­male, how­ever, fre­quently vis­its the tad­poles to lay un­fer­til­ized eggs pro­vid­ing them with food. Once the tad­poles meta­mor­phose into adults, the parental care of the fe­male ends and the young frogs are on their own. Es­sen­tially, the total parental care pro­vided for the young ranges from 12 to 14 weeks. (Dur­rell, 2001; Goin, et al., 1978; Ham­lett, 2002; "Poi­son-Ar­row Frog", 2003; Sand­meier, 2003)

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement
• pre-fertilization
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The lifes­pan of D. tinc­to­rius is about 4-6 years in the wild. In cap­tiv­ity it is known to live on av­er­age about 10 years, and can sur­vive for up to 12 years. ("Blue Poi­son Arrow Frog", 2000; Dur­rell, 2001)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  12 (high) years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  4 to 6 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  10 years

Be­hav­ior

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius is ter­ri­colous and re­mains close to some type of water source such as a stream. It is very ac­tive dur­ing the day­time (di­ur­nal) and moves con­stantly with short leaps. This species is also bold, ag­gres­sive, and very ter­ri­to­r­ial, es­pe­cially the males which are known to fight over ter­ri­to­ries (sizes un­known). How­ever, both sexes are known to de­fend their ter­ri­to­ries from frogs of the same species as well as those of other species. Ag­gres­sive be­hav­ior in D. tinc­to­rius usu­ally con­sists of call­ing, chases, and wrestling. Wrestling usu­ally oc­curs be­tween those of the same sex, but can occur be­tween males and fe­males. (Cloud­s­ley-Thomp­son, 1999; Dur­rell, 2001; "Poi­son-Ar­row Frog", 2003; "Blue Poi­son Dart Frog", 2002)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• diurnal
• motile
• territorial

Home Range

The size of the home range for D. tinc­to­rius is un­known.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Lit­tle is known about the com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­hav­iors of D. tinc­to­rius. How­ever, dur­ing mat­ing, males emit a se­ries of soft calls to at­tract fe­males. Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius is ca­pa­ble of com­mu­ni­cat­ing by means of pro­duc­ing quiet calls, but the ex­tent to which these are used in in­traspecies com­mu­ni­ca­tion is un­known. In ad­di­tion to sound per­cep­tion, this species per­ceives the sur­round­ing en­vi­ron­ment both vi­su­ally and with its sense of smell. (Dur­rell, 2001)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius is an in­sec­ti­vore, but also eats non-in­sect arthro­pods as well. Its diet con­sists of ants, bee­tles, flies, mites, spi­ders, ter­mites, mag­gots, and cater­pil­lars. In cap­tiv­ity, its diet con­sists pri­mar­ily of crick­ets and fruit flies. In­ter­est­ingly, the toxic com­pounds (poi­sons) in the skin of D. tinc­to­rius, known as lipophilic al­ka­loids, are found in high per­cent­ages within its prey, es­pe­cially in ants. Thus, upon eat­ing prey, the com­pounds are ab­sorbed into the skin of the frog pro­vid­ing it with a de­fense mech­a­nism. In cap­tiv­ity, this species loses its poi­so­nous prop­er­ties due to the lack of toxic com­pounds within the food it is fed. Tad­poles feed on un­fer­til­ized eggs pro­vided by their mother. (Cloud­s­ley-Thomp­son, 1999; "Blue Poi­son Arrow Frog", 2000; Dur­rell, 2001)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats eggs
  • insectivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods

• Animal Foods
• eggs
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods

Pre­da­tion

The preda­tors of D. tinc­to­rius are un­known, but it does have anti-preda­tory adap­ta­tions. One adap­ta­tion is its bright blue col­oration that serves as a warn­ing to preda­tors not to eat it. An­other im­por­tant adap­ta­tion are its tox­ins within its skin that are ca­pa­ble of par­a­lyz­ing or even killing po­ten­tial preda­tors. How­ever, D. tinc­to­rius is still preyed upon by snakes and large spi­ders. Tad­poles are also con­sumed by snakes and drag­on­fly lar­vae. ("Blue poi­son dart frog", 2003; Cloud­s­ley-Thomp­son, 1999; Ham­lett, 2002; "Blue poi­son dart frog", 2003)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• aposematic

• Known Predators

  • snakes (Serpentes)
  • spiders (Araneae)
  • dragonfly larvae (Odonata)

Ecosys­tem Roles

The role of D. tinc­to­rius in the ecosys­tem in which it lives is as a preda­tor of spi­ders, flies, ants, ter­mites, cater­pil­lars, mites, and bee­tles. (Dur­rell, 2001)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius plays an im­por­tant role in the rain­for­est ecosys­tem as a preda­tor of small arthro­pods. With­out this con­tri­bu­tion, no mat­ter how minis­cule it may be, dras­tic changes in the food web could re­sult. More re­cently, D. tinc­to­rius has be­come quite a com­mod­ity world­wide in the pet trade. Their pop­u­lar­ity is so great that many peo­ple are will­ing to pay around 75 dol­lars for one in­di­vid­ual. In ad­di­tion, the tox­ins of D. tinc­to­rius are being stud­ied by sci­en­tists for pos­si­ble phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal uses (like the painkiller epi­ba­ti­dine, found in dart frogs of the genus Phyl­lo­bates). The species it­self is being re­searched as well to give sci­en­tists a bet­ter un­der­stand­ing of its life habits, es­pe­cially in the wild. ("Am­phib­ians (Blue Dart Frogs)", 2003; Frazer, 1973; Ham­lett, 2002; "Poi­son-Ar­row Frog", 2003)

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade
• research and education

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius is poi­so­nous, and its tox­ins could cause harm, and pos­si­bly prove fatal to a human. In fact, this frog con­tains on av­er­age about 200 mi­cro­grams of poi­son and only 2 of which is nec­es­sary to prove fatal to a human. (Ham­lett, 2002)

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • poisonous

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The de­struc­tion of rain­for­est habi­tat by fires and by hu­mans for farm­land has con­tributed to the de­creas­ing num­bers of D. tinc­to­rius in the wild. The il­le­gal pet trade has also neg­a­tively im­pacted the ex­is­tence of D. tinc­to­rius by smug­gling hun­dreds of these frogs out of Suri­name into pet stores world­wide. With this pres­sure from il­le­gal trade and shrink­ing habi­tat, D. tinc­to­rius has be­come one of the most threat­ened of all the poi­son dart frogs in the neotrop­ics. ("Suri­name Con­ser­va­tion Pro­jects", 2003; Dur­rell, 2001)

As a re­sult of these pres­sures, much is cur­rently being done to con­serve the species. Cap­tive breed­ing pro­grams have sprung up in zoos and among pri­vate en­thu­si­asts across the United States in at­tempts to con­serve this rare species, while sci­en­tists, in hopes of ob­tain­ing a bet­ter un­der­stand­ing of these frogs, have con­ducted re­search ex­pe­di­tions in Suri­name. For in­stance, the At­lanta Botan­i­cal Gar­den, in con­junc­tion with the Suri­name For­est Ser­vice, Con­ser­va­tion In­ter­na­tional Suri­name, and the Na­tional Aquar­ium in Bal­ti­more, has cre­ated a cap­tive breed­ing pro­gram with the hopes of in­creas­ing D. tinc­to­rius num­bers. The Na­tional Aquar­ium in Bal­ti­more was ac­tu­ally the first in­sti­tu­tion in the United States to breed D. tinc­to­rius and has con­tin­ued doing so ever since. In Eng­land, Dur­rell Wildlife has suc­cess­fully bred this species since 1995 and has also dis­trib­uted these frogs to other zoos around the world. Other ef­forts are being made to rein­tro­duce these frogs into na­tive areas where they have been com­pletely dec­i­mated and to ed­u­cate those in­di­vid­u­als who col­lect the frogs to help en­sure the sur­vival of the species. Hope­fully, through these ef­forts, D. tinc­to­rius will be en­sured preser­va­tion in­def­i­nitely. ("Suri­name Con­ser­va­tion Pro­jects", 2003; Dur­rell, 2001; "Blue poi­son dart frog", 2003)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  Appendix II

Other Com­ments

Den­dro­bates tinc­to­rius has skin that re­mains sticky from mucus se­cre­tions which not only helps to hold mois­ture in, but also en­ables tad­poles to take hold when they are car­ried from the egg-site to their new aquatic home. (Ham­lett, 2002)

Con­trib­u­tors

David Ar­mitage (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

James Brown (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Ama­zon Rep­tile Cen­ter Inc. 2003. "Am­phib­ians (Blue Dart Frogs)" (On-line ). Ac­cessed 03/17/03 at http://​www.​amazonreptile.​com/​amphibians.​html.

Den­ver Zo­o­log­i­cal Foun­da­tion. 2000. "Blue Poi­son Arrow Frog" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 13, 2003 at http://​www.​denverzoo.​org/​animalsplants/​amphibians01.​htm#​arrow.

Ore­gon Zoo. 2002. "Blue Poi­son Dart Frog" (On-line). Ore­gon Zoo An­i­mal Fact Sheets. Ac­cessed Sep­tem­ber 02, 2006 at http://​www.​oregonzoo.​org/​Cards/​Amazon/​blue.​poison.​dart.​frog.​htm.

Na­tional Aquar­ium In Bal­ti­more. 2003. "Blue poi­son dart frog" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 13, 2003 at http://​www.​aqua.​org/​animals_​bluepoisondartfrog.​html.

Hon­olulu Zoo. 2003. "Poi­son-Ar­row Frog" (On-line ). Ac­cessed 03/13/03 at http://​www.​honoluluzoo.​org/​poisonarrow_​frog.​htm.

At­lanta Botan­i­cal Gar­den. 2003. "Suri­name Con­ser­va­tion Pro­jects" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 13, 2003 at http://​www.​atlantabotanicalgarden.​org/​conservation/​poisonfrogs_​conservation.​htm.

Blake , E., D. Sher­riff. 2003. "Main­te­nance of the Blue Poi­son Arrow frog" (On-line ). Ac­cessed 03/19/03 at http://​www.​thebdg.​org/​library/​frogspecies/​d_​azureus1.​htm.

Cloud­s­ley-Thomp­son, J. 1999. The Di­ver­sity of Am­phib­ians and Rep­tiles. New York: Springer.

Dur­rell, G. 2001. "Blue Poi­son-Dart Frog" (On-line ). Ac­cessed 03/13/03 at http://​www.​durrellwildlife.​org/​upload/​MainSite/​Documents/​pdfs/​blue%20poison%20dart%20frog.​pdf.

Frazer, J. 1973. Am­phib­ians. Lon­don, Eng­land: Wyke­ham Pub­li­ca­tions Ltd.

Goin, C., O. Goin, G. Zug. 1978. In­tro­duc­tion To Her­petol­ogy. San Fran­cisco CA: W.H. Free­man and Com­pany.

Ham­lett, L. 2002. "Blue Poi­son Arrow Frog" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 13, 2003 at http://​www.​nashvillezoo.​org/​blfrog.​htm.

Sand­meier, F. 2003. "Den­dro­bates azureus" (On-line). Am­phib­i­aWeb. Ac­cessed March 13, 2003 at http://​amphibiaweb.​org/​cgi-bin/​amphib_​query?​where-genus=Dendrobates&​where-species=azureus.

Sil­ver­stone, P. 1975. Den­dro­bates azureus. Sci­ence Bul­letin of the Los An­ge­les Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory, 21: 43-44.

Sum­mers, K. 1990. Pa­ter­nal care and the cost of polyg­yny in the green dart-poi­son frog Den­dro­bates au­ra­tus. Be­hav­ioral Ecol­ogy and So­cio­bi­ol­ogy, 27: 307-313.