Ranitomeya variabilis, formerly known as Dendrodates variabilis, is a species of small poison dart frog distributed in northern Peru, along the eastern slope of Andes in the upper Rio Huallaga drainage basin.

Like other frogs in the same family, R. variabilis has toxic skin alkaloid which repels potential predators.

Adult R. variabilis use chemical cues to determine the presence of tadpoles and whether they are cannibalistic or not.

However, because Ranitomeya variabilis is a polymorphic species with high genetic diversity, its pattern and color may change depending on the geographical location.

Tadpoles have dark and slightly brownish bodies with incomplete wide dorsal gaps and emarginated oral discs.

In preservative, the grey dorsal body color appears to be dark brown with darker spots.

[6] The average rainfall in areas in which R. variabilis habituate is around 2500 mm, with a dry season between June and September.

Adults are often found in secondary to ancient forests because of the presence of ideal oviposition sites.

[9] R. variabilis populations are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation due to agricultural development and logging.

Because the species exhibits male uniparental care, home ranges are less strongly associated with phytotelmata availability and territoriality is minimal when compared with the biparental R. imitator, and male individuals are often observed far away from their reproductive sites.

Due to their promiscuous mating system, there is also less home range overlap between individual breeding pairs.

[4] Adult R. variabilis generally prey on ants, fruit flies, termites, and small beetles.

[9] R. variabilis breed in phytotelmata, small pools of water captured by plant cavities.

[4] R. variabilis are found to use multiple species of plants for tadpole deposition, primarily Bromeliads of the genus Aechmea, but occasionally using others, such as in Dieffenbachia and Heliconia.

[8] Although R. variabilis are unable to recognize kinship or their own offspring, they often return to the same phytotelma to lay their larvae.

Because tadpoles are cannibalistic, the male parent oftentimes separates the siblings by transporting them into other phytotelmata, which increases individual offspring's fitness.

Adults would avoid egg deposition when chemical cues were produced by the species in the same family, Dendrobatidae.

This is due to R. variabilis’s ability to recognize specific non-cannibalistic species tadpoles such as O. mimeticus and O. lenoniae.

This could be an evolutionary trait, as non-cannibalistic species can serve as a convenient food source for hatching R. variabilis tadpoles.