On frogs, toxins and true friendship: an atypical case report

 

Cláudio Tadeu Daniel-Ribeiro¹, Christian Roussilhon²  

 

1 Laboratório de Pesquisa em Malária, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Pavilhão Leônidas Deane, 5º andar, Av. Brasil, 4365, CEP 21045-900, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.

2 Unité de Génétique Fonctionnelle des Maladies Infectieuses, Institut Pasteur and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité de Recherche Associée 3012, Paris, France.

 

ABSTRACT

The authors report a series of events including the scientific interest for poisonous dendrobates of French Guiana, the human confrontation with the immensity of the evergreen rainforest, the fragility of the best-prepared individuals to a rough life, and the unique and very special manifestation of a solid friendship between two experts and enthusiasts of outdoor life. In the evergreen forest of South America, as in many other scientific field expeditions, everything may suddenly go wrong, and nothing can prepare researchers to accidents that may occur in a succession of uncontrollable errors once the first mistake is done. This is what happened during an expedition in search for dendrobates by an experienced forest guide and naturalist. The authors decided to report the story, considering that it deserved to be brought to the attention of those interested in venomous animals and toxins, in order to illustrate the potential danger of dealing with these organisms.

 

Key words: Dart frogs; Dendrobatidae; Toxins; French Guiana

 

Received: July 1, 2015.

Revised: January 6, 2016.

Accepted: January 25, 2016.

 

Correspondence: malaria@fiocruz.br

 

Competing interests

The authors declare that there are no competing interests.

 

Authors’ contributions

CTDR drafted the manuscript and CR and CTDR reviewed and finished it. Both authors read and approved the final version of the article.

 

doi: 10.1186/s40409-016-0057-8