The 37-year-old Brazilian woman was detained by Colombian national police at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, the country’s capital, as she tried to board 130 frogs of a rare and extremely poisonous species. The Brazilian was detained shortly before boarding a plane heading to the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo with a stop in Panama.
The 130 frogs belong to the species Oophaga Histrionica, commonly known as the Poison Harlequin, which is critically endangered and therefore protected by Colombian authorities, and police believe they were taken illegally in a community known as Nariño. 830 km from Bogota, where they are still common. This species of frog has one of the most powerful poisons among vertebrates.
The animals, which were sent to the veterinary department for treatment, were hidden in boxes of film and were suffering from severe dehydration and severe stress, according to Bogota National Police commander Colonel Juan Carlos Arevalo. The frogs were only hours away from death and were unlikely to have survived had they not been found at the airport, the official said.
The Brazilian woman, whose name Colombian police chose not to disclose and who was handed over to the Colombian justice system, claimed that the frogs were given to her by friends from a community in the country’s interior and that she took them. them to Brazil as a souvenir. According to Colombian police, precisely because they are rare and on the verge of extinction, each frog of this species is worth more than a thousand dollars on the illegal collector’s market.