In the Colombian Amazon, ten snakes were given a meal that could kill them. Researchers offered royal ground snakes a lineup of three-striped poison dart frogs, each one coated in a chemical cocktail strong enough to stop a heartbeat.

What happened next left scientists stunned. The snakes dragged the frogs across the ground before swallowing them, wiping the poison from their meal.

The study, led by UC Berkeley biologist Valeria Ramírez Castañed, documented the odd behavior on film. Six snakes just refused to eat. Four actually went through with it. Three survived.

The team noted that this behavior had never been documented in snakes before. Birds have been known to scrape toxins from prey, but this is the first time anyone has seen reptiles do it.

The frogs’ skin carries alkaloids tha

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