A dose of your own medicine

The Hooded Pitohui (Pitohui dichrous) birds of New Guinea are the one of the few known venomous birds in the world. However, they were the first venomous birds to be identified and documented. With beautiful orange and black plumage, these attractive songbirds are not as cute as they look!

Their feathers and skin contain batrachotoxin- a deadly poison that affects the nervous system upon contact. The bright colours on their body also act as a warning signal to their enemies- a phenomenon called Aposematism. However, the birds themselves do not produce the venom- they obtain it from the Choresine beetles which they eat, and are immune to the poison themselves.

This is a form a chemical defence that birds have evolved to escape their predators. Two other birds- Ifrita sps and Colluricincla sps also contain the same venom in their bodies. vThe Poison dart frogs of Columbia, South America, (Phyllobates sps) also obtain the deadly Batrachotoxin the same way, by eating beetles and other insects that produce the venom.

Poison dart frogs that were bred in a lab on a normal diet were found to be harmless, with no traces of the toxin in their bodies, thus showing that the source of the poison is external.

Gloom had descended on the Poison Dart Frogs living in the rainforests of Columbia, South America. Their faces were dull and their expressions ranged from irritable to outright angry. Despite the bright colours of purple, orange, green and blue that their skins displayed, their thoughts seemed to be imprisoned in a world of black and white.

An old frog sighed heavily. “Our secret has been stolen”, he said. “I’m sure there must be a traitor in our midst who sold our secret!” He gave suspicious, gleaming stares at all the frogs assembled there. “Those foul birds are getting all the credit now!” complained another frog. “Ohh…. How I hate them!”

The cause of their distress was that a scientist had discovered that birds called the Hooded Pitohui, which were found in New Guinea, off the coast of Australia, had venom similar to that of the Poison dart frogs’, in their skin and feathers, thus making them the only known venomous birds in the world.

The frogs had earlier enjoyed the status of being the only creatures producing Batrachotoxin- a poison that was several times stronger than many poisons in the world, and helped them kill any predator that tried to harm them.

“I wonder how they could get our secret though”, wondered a tiny, young frog, who was sitting on a leaf a little higher than the rest of the assembly. “They stay so far … 9500 miles away! On a different continent too!” “Maybe they’re innocent after all”, he said aloud.

This simple sentence had a drastic effect on the gathering. A huge croak of protest rose up in the air. Some of the larger frogs charged at him, while some of the females screamed in horror. “How dare you support those birds!” the Old Frog asked him menacingly. “Are you, by any chance, a traitor?”

“No, no, of course not”, squeaked the poor, tiny frog, whose neck was now held in an iron grip by a large blue-black frog. “Just a baby, and blabbering away as if he knows everything!” snapped the Old Frog. “And if you want to know how they might have spied on us, let me remind you: they are birds, and they can fly!” The large frog released his grip on the tiny frog, who rubbed his neck in relief.

He decided it was better to keep his mouth shut. “And can’t you see your elders sitting down here? Who taught you to go and sit up on a higher branch when your seniors are holding a meeting here? You better come down, this instant!” shouted the Old Frog.

The tiny frog meekly came down and sat in a corner, trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible, which was of course, quite difficult, since every frog was now giving him disapproving glances. “I propose we file a lawsuit against them”, said a frog with huge, bulging eyes. “Our poison, our venom, belongs to us. We were the first to be known as the ones using these bat… bat..batra…”

“Batrachotoxins!” piped up the tiny frog, quite forgetting his earlier disgrace. All the frogs frowned at him, and he whispered “Uh, sorry.” The Bulgy-eyed Frog continued. “Yes, yes, the batrachotoxins…we should be the only ones with the right to use it! We should be the sole owners of our toxins! We can’t let these flying upstarts called the Hooded Pitohuis produce the same toxins as us and get away with it!”

The Old Frog nodded gravely. Shouts of agreement greeted the Bulgy-eyed Frog, who smiled in satisfaction at the admiration and support he was receiving. Very soon, he dashed off a legal letter to the Hooded Pitohuis, and other letters of complaint to several scientists around the world.

“That’s going to put them in their place, alright!” he said, rubbing his webbed hands in glee. The Hooded Pitohuis were quite surprised when they received a legal notice accusing them of having stolen the frog’s secret formula of making venom.

They hadn’t even been aware that the poison dart frogs of South America produced the same venom! All they knew was that they had been blessed with an ability to ward off their bigger predators like the Hawk, who would otherwise have never thought twice before gobbling them up!

“We never asked anyone to give us any publicity”, grumbled the Chief of the Hooded Pitohuis. “Now just look at all the trouble we are having!” “I say, let’s send them a notice back saying we never claimed anything, it’s the scientists who did it”, said another Pitohui bird.

“Or better still, let’s all fly there and eat up those idiotic frogs!” said another Pitohui. “And then be accused of terminating another species for this silly tag?” asked the Leader. “As it is, I don’t think it’s very nice to be called the only venomous bird in the world. It feels like a bad name.”

“Alright then, let’s wait for the scientists to clear our name. We did nothing, to begin with”, said another bird, and that settled the matter for the Pitohuis. The frogs, however, were quite restless. When would the birds respond? How would they defend themselves? What were the scientists doing? But to their great relief, a few months later, the scientists came up with another discovery: the poison was not produced by the Hooded Pitohui birds after all! The toxin was produced by the Choresine beetles, which the Hooded Pitohuis ate, and the toxins then piled up in the birds’ skin and feathers.

The frogs went crazy with joy. “Aha! Now they can’t claim to be the ‘bird’ producers of our deadly venom!” The Hooded Pitohuis were more than relieved. They didn’t want to be involved in any legal tangle with the Poison Dart frogs, and their Chief politely went and spoke to the leader of the Choresine Beetles, asking if he would like to publish any claim regarding their toxin.

The Leader of the Beetles said they couldn’t be bothered with such things, as they had more important things to do, like saving themselves from being eaten by the Pitohui birds. But the Bulgy-eyed frog wasn’t satisfied. He now wanted to file a lawsuit against the Choresine Beetles for producing the toxin.

“Forget it, there may be so many insects producing these toxins as well as others”, said the Old Frog. “The birds, of course, were identifiable, and we could pointedly ask them for an explanation. But how will we find all the poisonous insects in the world and file lawsuits against them?”

“I don’t know how, but I will do it. It is our right, our sole right….” And the Bulgy –eyed frog started off another lengthy speech that held the rest of the frogs spell-bound. Just then, the tiny frog came in, interrupting him, “Look at this! It’s a letter addressed to us frogs!”

That was a surprise! Who could have written them a letter now? “Must be a letter of congratulations, no doubt”, said the Bulgy-eyed frog smugly. “This is what it says”, said the Tiny Frog, who started to read it out aloud. “Dear Poison-dart frogs, stop claiming that the Batrachotoxin is produced by you. You may be unaware that, similar to the Pitohui birds, you get your toxin from us insects whom you eat everyday. If you’re not careful, we will be filing a lawsuit against you. Yours sincerely, the beetles of Amazon Rainforest.”