Frogs and toads provide more than just musical ambiance to an evening in the country or cute characters in books for children. These amphibious creatures’ life cycles require specialized survival mechanisms to ensure the proliferation of their wiggly progeny. The poisonous secretions of frogs and toads is of interest to psychedelic researchers and psychonauts alike. Let’s take a look at a couple of hallucinogenic frogs and toads and their undercover trippy powers.
Giant Leaf Frog
The Phyllomedusa bicolor, also known as the giant monkey frog, the bicolor tree frog or the waxy monkey tree frog, is a vivid green amphibian who’s hallucinogenic properties have benefited indigeneous Amazonian communities for generations.
Habitat and Habits
The giant leaf frog is native to the neotropical regions of South America, specifically the Amazon Basin. The Amazon’s thick foliage provides camouflage and a habitat for these hallucinogenic tree frogs. Their lime green backs measure around four to five inches in length with a raised dorsal ridge along the center. Underneath, their bellies are a yellowy cream with small white spots adorning their lower lips, legs and chests. These tree frogs are insectivores, with a diet of primarily flies, beetles, ants and moths.
These creatures are nocturnal, relying on their strong hind legs, toxic excretions and loud calls to secure a mate. During mating season male frogs roost high in the trees, bellowing out to potential mates on the lower leaves and ground. Once coupled, the frogs build nests on leaves hanging above ponds. The female then lays a bundle of 600 gelatinous eggs that will hatch in two weeks, generating a cascade of tadpoles into the pond below.
History and Hallucinogenic Properties
The communities living alongside these verdant frogs harnessed the poisonous secretions — used in the amphibian world for protection against predators and mating competition — as healing, strengthening and protective medicine. Referred to as kambo or sapo, indigenous communities native to the Amazon basin developed shamanic traditions surrounding their amphibian neighbor’s secretions, using it to strengthen hunters, cleanse negative energy and promote overall well being.
Today kambo medicine reaches beyond the Amazon and ceremony participants report emotional, spiritual and physical benefits.
A kambo ceremony involves creating small burn wounds — usually on the arm, leg or back — and applying the hallucinogenic frog and toad secretions to the area. This method of application allows for the chemical components — namely bioactive peptides — to enter the blood and lymphatic system quickly, resulting in the quick presentation of side effects. The energetic cleanse involves purging the system through vomiting or other forms of bodily evacuation. Some ceremony participants experience facial swelling, dizziness and increased heart rate, but these symptoms typically last only 5-30 minutes before participants rehydrate and flush the toxins from their system.
Colorado River Toad
The Incilius alvarius, commonly referred to as the Colorado River toad or the Sonoran Desert toad is the largest native toad in the United States. These toads are regularly depicted in Mesoamerican art, leading some anthropologists to speculate about the potential of indigenous Mesoamerican’s hallucinogenic amphibian traditions.
Habitat and Habits
The Colorado River toad lives in desert and semi-arid areas of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. These toads are semi-aquatic and are often found near streams, ponds and man-made bodies of water. These toads can grow up to seven and a half inches long and have smooth olive skin and bulbose golden eyes with horizontal pupils. Behind their eyes is a protruding gland that produces neurotoxins meant to protect the toad from predators. They also have smaller glands near their external hearing structures and along their legs.
These toads are nocturnal and often make their homes in burrows near bodies of water. During the scorching desert afternoons, these toads stay cool in their underground holes preparing for nighttime. In order to secure food, these toads actively forage for invertebrates, lizards, amphibians and small mammals. The rainy season, starting in May, signals the beginning of the Colorado River toad’s mating season. While the ground is still damp from the rain, female toads lay tubes of jelly-like eggs in the available still-water, sometimes laying up to 8000 eggs at once. Two weeks later the eggs hatch into tadpoles and begin their life in the desert.
History and Hallucinogenic Properties
The Colorado River toad’s poisonous glands are powerful enough to kill a large dog. These same toxins are also known to produce hallucinogenic effects due to their active alkaloids: bufotenin and 5-MeO-DMT.
Bufotenin — the original namesake of this species Bufo alvarius — is a tryptamine derivative with a similar structure to the neurotransmitter serotonin. Bufotenin is also present in other amphibian’s protective toxins and some fungi.
5-MeO-DMT is similar to Dimethyltryptamine or DMT, but is much more powerful. The trope of licking toads to get high is not unfounded: though this is a possible method of application, it is highly dangerous. The safer way to consume these toad secretions is by extracting the venom from the toad’s glands, drying it until it can be made into a powder and smoking the dust.
Individuals report a highly spiritual, regenerative and euphoric experience shortly after smoking that typically lasts around an hour. Shamans throughout Mexico and the Southwestern United States have long used this toad medicine, but in recent years western researchers have begun investigating 5-MeO-DMT as a possible treatment for addiction, anxiety and depression.
The increased interest in these toads for their psychedelic properties has resulted in some states listing them as endangered, threatened and outlawing transportation of toads across state lines.
Ethical Implications
In order to extract the secretions from any hallucinogenic frogs and toads, people must first capture them and instigate a state of panic worthy of these creature’s most extreme defense system.
For kambo collection, ceremony practitioners go into the jungle at night, mimicking the call of the giant tree frog. Since the animals rely on their chemical defenses, they are easy to handle and catch. In order to extract the toxins from the back, practitioners often tie the legs of the frog and scrape the venom using a wooden tool.
Ethical kambo harvesting involves respecting the frogs by handling them with care and not over scraping their secretions. Making sure that the frogs keep enough toxins to protect against predators ensures the survival of these sacred creatures and the continued availability of kambo medicine.
The giant leaf frogs from which kambo is derived are not endangered and are still thriving in their natural habitat. Kambo ceremonies have yet to infringe upon the frog populations and there is an agreed upon standard of ethical harvest amongst local practitioners.
Though the Colorado River toad population is stable and of little concern to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, state laws listing it as endangered serve to limit the general public’s access to a potentially dangerous poison.
Some animal rights activists believe that the exploitation of a creature’s specialized defense system for personal gain or enjoyment is unethical. The logic is that the stress of capture, possible physical damage or dangers of over-extraction on the amphibian, weigh heavier than any perceived benefits on the human’s part. Humans entering into the natural environment of these creatures without proper training, respect and knowledge of conservation efforts also could affect the surrounding habitat and put delicate ecosystems at risk.
Understanding hallucinogenic frogs and toads can better empower people to make their own decisions about engaging with amphibian-born medicines. Indigenous traditions are essential for the many groups of native peoples still marginalized by the lingering effects of colonialism. Western ethical perspectives on indigenous practices can often disregard the careful intention behind ceremonial psychedelic use and further ostracize native populations and cultures. Those seeking to engage with amphibian-born medicines can look to the expert kambo practitioners or Mesoamerican shamans for insights on the wise, respectful and healthful use of these powerful substances.
Did you know about these hallucinogenic frogs and toads? If you have any fun facts about toads, frogs or any other trippy creatures we would love to hear it in the comments below. If you are interested in learning more about the ethical implications of frog medicines, subscribe to our newsletter for updates on the newest content.
