The poison-dart frog, the common name assigned to over 175 known species of the Dendrobatidae family of frogs, is endemic to the humid, equatorial zones within South and Central America. Habitats range from freshwater lakes and swamps to tropical high-altitude shrublands and lowland forests.
Due to human encroachment and subsequent destruction of many poison-dart frog habitats, some species have been forced to adapt to plantations, pastureland, degraded former forests and seasonably wet savannas. Coupled with the spread of chytrid diseases caused by water-borne fungi, many species of poison-dart frogs have become threatened or endangered. Other species of poison-dart frogs have gone extinct.
