Science: a many-flavoured thing

It is normal to expect researchers to be comfortable when handling their study organisms, but where do you draw the line in terms of 'familiarity'? Personally, I would draw the line at basic handling and post-mortem dissections. Valerie Clark, a herpetologist studying frog toxins, has a different level of familiarity with her study organisms: back-licking! By licking frogs she can determine whether they are poisonous by the taste of their skin secretions. (Note: I do not recommend non-experts pick up frogs and lick them to see if they are poisonous). Most skin secretions of poisonous frogs can't kill a human, but it can cause throat burning and constriction, but when in the field with limited equipment, often the only way to tell whether you've found a poisonous frog is to give it a hearty lick on the back.

Poisonous Mantella frogs from Madagascar taste bitter-sweet

In a recent study, Clark used electrical stimulation to extract skin secretions from some poisonous frogs found in Madagascar. Apparently, licking these study frogs leaves a bitter-sweet taste. The reason for this taste is revealed by mass spectrometry of the secretion products: sucrose and a new bile (or stomach) acid called tauromantellic acid. Frogs typically don't generate their own poison, their guts actually sequester and remove it from insects that they eat so they themselves are not poisoned. Clark believes that the bile acid on the skin is involved in transporting toxins from the frog's gut to its skin. FYI: this does not happen in humans, if you eat something particularly nasty and don't seek medical help, it is likely you will just die. On that happy note, frogs are cute anyway, so who wouldn't want to lick them?!

Original article via National Geographic News.