Follow up to previous post about sapo

On the thread on FB on which I wrote the previous blog entry, someone posted a picture of a bufo toad, a cane toad, with a story about how their population is threatened in California, and then she wrote the words: "Until there are none left," or something like that. I kind of felt obligated to respond because she didn't even have the right animal, and if some novice winds up mistaking the two because he/she read about it on facebook who knows how frightening the effect on the human body might be.

   So here is how I responded:

Yes, people need to be mindful. But please note two things: the sapo/kambo frog is not in any way related biologically to the cane toad you have pictured here. That said, while the toad is threatened in California it is an invasive pest in Australia and more than a dozen other countries, where its growing population is a threat to delicate eco systems. Another species of cane toad, the Bufo Amazonis thrives in western Amazonia. 

As for the sapo/kambo frog, P bicolor, since it does not produce medicine in captivity and many of its habitats are a couple of days' trip from Iquitos — plus the fact that it mostly hangs around in tall thin trees 15-30 feet hight at water's edge mean that most, not all by any means, but most of the medicine produced will have to be collected by either reberiños or indigenous who can climb those skinny trees without dying!!! So yes, be concerned about them but I don't know that they are anywhere near trouble and hope they never get there.