Red Backed Poison Frog
Carel Brest van Kempen
Original Artwork
Acrylic
10 × 8 in
Artwork Description
The Red-backed Poison-Frog is one of several very closely related species found in the upper Amazon Basin in eastern Peru and western Brazil. These are tiny frogs, well under an inch long. The female lays two or three eggs at a time, which the male guards. Once they hatch, the male transports the tadpoles to a small body of water in a bromeliad or other protected place, where they live on algae, mosquito larvae, and other organic matter. The poisonous skin secretions of this species are strong enough to sicken a Human, but much less potent than those of the related Phyllobates frogs of Colombia.
