Blogger Kate St. John from Outside My Window recently visited our summer blockbuster exhibition The Power of Poison, and blogged about her experience! Check it out.
Did you know that your fingers will go numb or burn if you handle this bird? You’ll be lucky that’s all that happens. This bird is poisonous!
Though it superficially resembles our orchard oriole the hooded pitohui (Pitohui dichrous) is an Old World oriole that lives on the islands of New Guinea. Its skin and feathers are poisonous to touch though not as deadly as the golden poison frog of South America shown below. Both animals exude batrachotoxin, a deadly neurotoxin that kills by paralysis and cardiac arrest. The frog is 50 times more poisonous than the bird. He contains enough poison to kill 10 men!
