This week we have what I identified then only as an Oophaga pumilio, but it also bears the common names of strawberry poison-dart frog, strawberry poison frog, and/or blue jeans poison frog. Yes, it’s one of the poisonous treefrogs from South America, but it was not photographed on that continent, instead found within the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC. As such, it’s both no surprise that it’s only been featured once here, and then again, kind of inexcusable.
I mean, sure, I prefer to concentrate on species actually photographed ‘in the wild,’ in their own habitat and not captive in any way, but I’ve never traveled to any location where these could be found, and it’s rather unlikely that one will make its way here eventually. Yet the museum itself is easy enough to get to and I’ve tackled the poison dart frog exhibit several times, often with poor results – a flash is necessary, and the only choice is to shoot through glass and so reflections, distortions, and mucky glass is typical, and even when overcoming these, one still has to have a subject posed usefully without the face of some kid framed in the background on the other side of the terrarium. You’d think photographing such captives would be easy, but most times it doesn’t allow anything decent at all. Still, it’s been twelve years since this image was taken and I could certainly have gotten more if I’d made the effort. Admittedly, I don’t maintain comprehensive lists of species that I should be building up my stock of.
All that said, I’m fond of the pose that this one achieved, coming out from under its bridge to eat some billy goats, and the coloration is displayed nicely – you see where they got the blue-jean name from. The grunge on the glass was limited to the lower corner, and while I didn’t manage a catchlight in the eye, the lack thereof seems to enhance the menacing air. Which is nonsense of course – it’s a frog, it has two expressions: ‘awake’ and ‘asleep,’ while its ass-kicking ability is laughable at best. Well, except for that deadly poison thing…