When I was much younger, we watched movies with Cowboys and Indians, and that sort; and we were fascinated by weapons such as arrows (and bows), blow darts and spears.  Something about them made you associate the primitiveness and the simple basic but deadly form with skill, rather than the crude but equally deadly firearms.

Reading stories and watching films that included “poisoned darts” was fascinating and intriguing, and it also made you wonder where the poison came from, was it man-made or natural?

One of Guyana’s major tourist attractions is the Kaieteur Falls, situated in the Kaieteur National Park, in this area, there lives a species of the Poison Dart Frogs, Colostethus beebei, it is commonly referred to as the Kaieteur Golden Frog.  It is a tiny frog, of a brilliant golden yellow, that lives in the watery areas in the giant bromeliad leaves that are popular around the waterfall.

This frog produces a toxin that (dependent on the dosage) can kill small insects up to larger arthropods, I do know that they tell you NOT to touch the frog, it’s skin secretes the poison, only it’s feet have no poison glands.

On my first visit to Kaieteur in 2009, I was fortunate to see a few of them, and to get a fairly decent shot of one… not great, but decent  🙂