The U.S. National Park Service has warned visitors to stop licking one of America’s largest toads.
The potentially deadly Sonoran desert toad, also known as the Colorado river toad, secretes a toxin that can harm humans, and some say it has psychedelic effects.
In a Facebook post, the service warned people to “don’t lick” the 7-inch amphibian with “glowing” eyes.
“As we say, most things you encounter in a national park, whether it’s a banana slug, an unfamiliar mushroom, or a giant toad with glowing eyes in the dead of night, please don’t lick it,” the agency wrote.
The service posted a photo of a toad, captured by a motion-sensor camera, staring into footage of Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
According to the Auckland Zoo, some people use the toad’s toxin as a hallucinogen, smoking it to experience euphoria and hallucinations.
It added that bufotenin, a chemical found in toad skin, is illegal in California, but in neighboring Arizona, people with the proper licenses can legally catch up to 10 toads.
Toad toads can also kill adult dogs.