# Are any animals poisonous for humans to eat?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-animals-poisonous-for-humans-to-eat/328151>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 27, 2005, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-animals-poisonous-for-humans-to-eat/328151 "2005-10-27T13:39:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-animals-poisonous-for-humans-to-eat/328151/21 "2005-10-28T02:43:02Z")

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The [liver of polar bears](http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears-in-depth/physiology/) contains large amounts of Vitamin A and is toxic. It’ll take weeks to kill you, though.

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**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-animals-poisonous-for-humans-to-eat/328151/22 "2005-10-28T03:53:07Z")

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> [@Der Trihs](#):
>
> The Pitohui bird from New Guinea has poison feathers, and lesser amounts in the skin. If anyone was dumb enough to eat the feathers it would likely kill them; just eating the skin makes people sick. An extract from the feathers can kill mice; they contain the same poison you find in poison-arrow frogs. [Here’s an article.](http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/2001/2/intoxnewguineabirds.cfm)

And the reason it is called a Pitohui bird - it is that is the sound made when spitting out the awful tasting skin. … p’tooohey

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**Author:** ![TX\_SpookyPants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a8b319/32.png) [@TX\_SpookyPants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TX_SpookyPants)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-any-animals-poisonous-for-humans-to-eat/328151/23 "2005-10-28T04:13:23Z")

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Quick note on Dart Frogs . . .

Only those caught in the wild would be harmful to a person. The captive-raised ones are harmless. I’ve been looking into getting some for some time now, so I made sure to research that little tidbit, heh. Given that in captivity, they tend to be fed dlightless fruitflies and small crickets, they’re not going to get the poison in their diet to secrete from their skin.

But in the wild . . . [One tiny drop of toxin is all it takes to paralyze and in some cases kill a foe—including a person.](http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/frogs/vivarium/toxic.php) Doing a little research, it seems the Phyllobates have batrachotoxin and Dendrobates have pumiliotoxin, which is less toxic. The Dendrobates are what you usually see in captivity.

Anyway, by the sounds of it, just licking a Phyllobates could do a pretty nasty number on you, heh. Eating an ENTIRE one? Oomph.

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