Monday, January 09, 2006

Poison Dart Frogs... Pretty to Look at but...

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After seeing some of the very nice mosaics out there that people where making with Flickr Toys and their Flickr pics, I decided it would be fun to do a set of pictures with a theme and some bright framing and do a mosaic of it. Unfortunately none of the 'pre designed' mosaics worked for this set of pictures, so I was forced to do it myself in my photo manipulation software!

The top picture here is another picture of my friend the Bearded Dragon. I used a different picture of this same guy to make my 'motivational poster' in an earlier entry. He is usually pretty mellow, and I often find him hanging out on his log. For a little more info on Bearded Dragons in general, click Here!

The other three bright and cheery creatures are called Poison Dart Frogs, and are the reason I chose to do the very bright neon framing for this set of pictures. Poison Dart Frogs are very colorful and fun. I usually get a couple of shots of them when I stop by the Discovery Station.

Poison Dart Frogs are so brightly colored for a reason. The coloring tells any animal who might be thinking about making a meal of the little guys that they are poisonous and will make them sick. So, it's kind of like advertising. Some species of Poison Dart Frogs are considered to be among the most poisonous animals in the world. They actually get their name because the toxin they secrete from their skin has been used on darts to make them poisonous!

If they are so toxic.... How are they so easily handled?? Well, Poison Dart Frogs that are born in captivity have not eaten the same foods that they would have in the wild. Yep! They are the ultimate "You are what you Eat" animals!! Since they have never been exposed to the diet that they would have consumed in the wild, captive bred frogs are not poisonous at all! Want to read more about poison Dart Frogs? Click Here! You will also see more pictures of different representatives of the species. They come in a dazzling display of colors.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fascinating! Leave it to you to be creative with the graphics (excellent, btw!) and have the intellect to back it up with references for me to go to for more information. Brilliant! This, my friend, is one of the reasons why I love your blog. I always walk away learning something new.
Happy New Year.
Judith

Anonymous said...

Wow..spectacular frogs! I never knew that they had such vibrant colors! Great shots!

DesLily said...

Ohhh how cool is that!.. I knew about poison frogs but didn't know that those in captivity lost the poison just due to what they ate.. interesting.. also makes you wonder what their insides are made of since they can eat poisoned things and not die but yet have it "bred out" of them.. very interesting JJ

Gøkberk said...

Hi,

I see you have an interesting blog. I am writing this comment because there are some visitors redirected to my blog by yours. Thanks anyway.

Astaryth said...

Gokberk! Hi! If you come back here I wanted to say I went over to your blog... and since I'm not bilingual... I was lost ::LOL:: I wonder how someone got directed from here to you... probably that button at the top marked next blog! ANyway, I'm glad you stopped by...

DEREK said...

love this entry, very creative and colorful, love it.

Derek

BosieLadie said...

HI there! Your photo collection is beautiful! Good job. I used photobucket.com to create my cruise mosaics. Thanks for stopping by!

Prom said...

Interesting photos. I've always wondered what a bearded dragon looks like... I have a friend in AZ who has a pair and he talks about them all the time. That and some other creature that I can't remember.. some friend I am!
I'll have to find out and see if you know what they are too.

Anyway, you do a great job with your photos!

V said...

Great Pics!
V

Judith HeartSong said...

I totally mis-read the title of this entry and then had to do a double-take. You have got to come to our zoo:):):)

Steven said...

Poison Dart frogs are so pretty. Somewhere I've got one as a plastic cat toy. Nice shots!