Oophaga
genus of amphibians From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Oophaga is a group of frogs that make poison in their skins. This group has twelve species in it. Scientists used to think these frogs were in Dendrobates, but they changed their minds.[1] The frogs live in Central and South America, from Nicaragua south through the El Chocó to northern Ecuador. Peopl ehave seem them as high as 1,200 m (3,900 ft) above sea level.[1][2] They can live in different places. Some live in trees and others live on the ground.[3] All of the tadpoles in Oophaga eat eggs and nothing else.[3][1][4][5] Most species in this genus are may die out soon. O. speciosa is already dead.[6]
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Name
Oophaga, is Greek for "egg eater" (oon, phagos).[7][8] Scientists named the frogs Oophaga because the tadpoles eat eggs.[9][10]
Young
Scientists think all frogs in this group watch and care for the eggs, but frogs in Oophaga do more than other frogs do: the tadpoles can only eat eggs that the mother frog makes for them to eat.[1][4] When they eat the eggs, they also take in poison chemicals that make it harder for other animals to eat them. Scientists fed plain eggs to Oophaga pumilio tadpoles to see what would happen.[11]
Species
There are twelve species in this genus:[2]
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With humans
Some people keep Oophaga as pets. Only skilled amphibian keepers can do this. It is hard to raise new froglets because only the mother frog can feed the tadpoles.[3]
References
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