As winter approaches, so does the perennial warning that comes from any viewing of that holiday favorite A Christmas Story. Anyone who has seen that film can tell you the lesson it preaches about the perils of licking a metal flagpole on a freezing cold day.
However, the National Park Service warns that there is another place you should be wary of putting your tongue: poisonous toads.
Specifically, the NPS cautions people to keep their tongues to themselves around the Sonoran Desert Toad (a.k.a. the Colorado River Toad), and it’s not hard to spot. At almost seven inches long, it measures as one of the largest toads in North America.
The toad also secretes what is considered a potent toxin, a substance that can make humans sick if ingested.
If you’re asking why anyone might want to lick a toad in the first place, the crystalized form of the toxin is reportedly a substance that can cause the person who consumes it to experience a high but licking it straight from a toad can also be dangerous.
Because of that, then NPS warns that toads, or for that matter anything else residing in a national park, should remain unlicked by park visitors.
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