The startlingly bright stomach of the fire-bellied newt is a very eye-catching feature. It's supposed to be. It functions that same as the colors of the poison dart frogs, the mantellas, and a host of other amphibians. It's a message the screams "I'm toxic, leave me alone!" (Side note: this career would be so much easier if some of my past and present coworkers carried similar warnings. I digress).
The thing is, though, that unlike the fire-bellied toads, poison dart frogs, etc in the wild, our zoo amphibians are bluffing. They may not know it - but they're just about harmless. Amphibians aren't really born poisonous - they accumulate their toxins from the invertebrates that they eat. In the case of poison dart frogs, for instance, it comes from ants. Feed an amphibian a zoo-based diet of crickets, or fruit flies, or blackworms, or what have you, it has no toxins - or at least its toxins are greatly reduced.
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