The blue poison dart frog is only 2.5cm long and is usually found in the tropical forests of Costa Rica and Brazil. But the species is under threat in South America, where their habitat is being destroyed.
Now animal experts at Walford and North Shropshire College have successfully bred one of the deadly amphibians in their lab.
Simon Metcalfe, the animal technician who led the project, said: 'Although eggs were laid on several occasions, the students had been unsuccessful in getting the eggs to progress to tadpoles.
'They had always gone mouldy and not formed. After researching environmental conditions required and their breeding behaviour, a few adjustments were made and we waited for the first clutch of eggs to be laid.
'Now all our research and effort has paid off and our first froglet was moved out of water and on to dry land, its metamorphosis now complete.'
A male and female blue poison dart frog were donated to the college by a student who left to join the army.
Once the pair had produce a fertilised egg, the team placed it in an inside pond, where it took 12 weeks for the froglet to develop.
The team of four experts set the water's temperature at 27C (80F), and lit it with UV lights, to recreate the conditions of the frog's natural habitat.
But despite the frog's fearsome reputation, the students have nothing to fear from the tiny frog because it only becomes venomous after eating certain toxic tree barks and insects in the wild.
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