A 52-year-old Manoa man is facing a maximum five-year prison term and a fine of between $50,000 and $200,000 for allegedly importing four poison dart frogs into Hawaii without a permit.
An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging Charles Nishihira with importing the restricted animals.
A state judge set Nishihira’s bail at $2,000.
Employees of the state Attorney General and Agriculture departments said they seized 20 poison dart frogs and several aquarium tanks from Nishihira’s Pinao Street home while executing a search warrant March 27, 2014.
They also arrested Nishihira but later released him without charges.
The raid came eight days after U.S. Postal Service officials discovered four other live frogs in the mail.
The indictment charges Nishihira with importing the four frogs March 19, 2014. He has not been charged with any crimes in connection with the 20 other frogs authorities seized from his home.
Poison dart frogs of the Dendrobates family can only be possessed and transported into and within Hawaii with a state permit for private and commercial research, zoological parks or aquaculture production.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the green and black poison dart frog, or Dendrobates auratus, can be found in the wild on parts of Oahu and Maui. It is indigenous to Costa Rica, Panama, southern Nicaragua and northern Colombia but was intentionally introduced to the upper Manoa Valley in 1932 for mosquito control. When and how it was introduced on Maui is not known.
The 1- to 1.7-inch frog gets its name because its skin glands contain an alkaloid toxin, which it derives from the ants it eats in its native habitat.
The USGS says D. auratus is popular among hobbyists who keep and trade them worldwide.
The four frogs that came in the mail are of the same family but different species from those found in Hawaii.
