National Park Service: Please Stop Licking Toads

NPR reports:

Go into almost any park and there’s often reminders to refrain from going near, petting or feeding wildlife. Not licking strange animals was simply a given — until now. The National Park Service has added tongue-contact with the Sonoran desert toad among its various warnings for park visitors.

“As we say with most things you come across in a national park, whether it be a banana slug, unfamiliar mushroom, or a large toad with glowing eyes in the dead of night, please refrain from licking,” the agency wrote on Facebook this past week.

Sonoran desert toads secrete a potent toxin that can make people sick if they touch it or get the poison in their mouth. Despite the risks, some people have discovered that the toad’s toxic secretions contain a powerful hallucinogenic known as 5-MeO-DMT.

Read the full article.

The Sonoran desert toad secretes a potent toxin that can make people sick.

Despite the risks, some people have discovered that the toad’s toxic secretions contain a powerful hallucinogenic. https://t.co/mOQU6kWFLO

— NPR (@NPR) November 7, 2022