Mystery of 1,000 exploding toads

[rick301]

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=443452005

Mystery of 1,000 exploding toads

ALLAN HALL

IN BERLIN

VISITORS to parks in the German city of Hamburg were warned yesterday to watch out for exploding toads.

Several thousand have so far mysteriously and spontaneously blown up, sending entrails and body parts over a wide area.

Eyewitnesses say the toads swell up to three-and-a-half times their normal size before they explode.

Vets and animal welfare workers said the mystery disorder had cut a swathe through the city’s toad population.

Werner Smolnik, a nature- protection worker from Hamburg, said at least 1,000 toads had died in this manner over the past four days amid scenes reminiscent of "a science-fiction film".

He said: "It is a complete mystery. We have a lot of ideas which we are following up, but at the moment we haven’t the faintest idea if any of them are correct. It could be an unknown virus, or a fungus that has infected the water, or a defence mechanism against aggressive crows which have appeared in the area."

He went on: "You see the toads crawling along the ground, swelling and getting bigger as they go until they are like little tennis balls, and then they suddenly go ‘boom’."

Janne Kloepper, from the Hamburg Institute for Hygiene and the Environment, said: "If this keeps up, there will be no toads left in Hamburg."

[Spaceman Spiff]

thats so gross...yet hysterical

[dfitzo53]

Originally posted by rick301

It could be an unknown virus, or a fungus that has infected the water, or a defence mechanism against aggressive crows which have appeared in the area.

That's quite a defense mechanism.

[Mr. S]

is this a joke? It is pretty hysterical!!! I hope its a joke, or thats just plain weird

[gbear]

Great lunch time thread.

[redman]

pics?

[Coach Williams]

Originally posted by redman

pics?

:thumbsup:

Of the crows I assume

[The Slammer]

Yeah, to avoid being eaten, blow yourself up. It's foolproof!

[Riggo-toni]

Man, I'd pay to see that!

[Destino]

[skinsfanmike]

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[Brother Redskin]

I believe toads are considered "indicator species", like when miners used to bring canaries into the mine shafts with them because they were affected quicker by the ???sulfur?? I think. So canary dies get out of there, toad blows up but we have nowhere to go. The toad incident could be from UV rays in my opinion.

[portisizzle]

This thread is useless without pictures!!:laugh:

[chomerics]

Couldn't find any exploded pictures

[redman]

Yeah, me neither. This is a legit news story too that's all over the internet. How can you not have any pics?!?!?!

[China]

Originally posted by dfitzo53

That's quite a defense mechanism.

Here's more about that theory:

Birds May Be Behind Exploding German Toads

BERLIN -- More than 1,000 toad corpses have been found at a pond in an upscale neighborhood in Hamburg and over the border in Denmark after bloating and bursting.

It's left onlookers baffled.

The pond water in Hamburg has been tested, but its quality is no better or worse than elsewhere in the city.

The toad remains have been checked for a virus or bacterium, but none has been found.

One German scientist studying the splattered amphibian remains has a theory: Hungry crows are pecking out their livers.

"The crows are clever," said Frank Mutschmann, a Berlin veterinarian who collected and tested specimens at the Hamburg pond. "They learn quickly from watching other crows how to get the livers."

Based on the wounds, Mutschmann said, it appears that a bird pecks into the toad with its beak between the amphibian's chest and abdominal cavity, and the toad puffs itself up as a natural defense mechanism.

But, because the liver is missing and there's a hole in the toad's body, the blood vessels and lungs burst and the other organs ooze out, he said.

As gruesome as it sounds, it isn't actually that unusual, he said.

"It's not unique -- it's in a city area, and that makes it spectacular," Mutschmann said. "Of course, it's something very dramatic."

There have also been reports of exploded toads in a pond near Laasby in central Jutland in Denmark.

Local environmental workers in Hamburg have described it as a scene out of a horror or science fiction movie, with the bloated frogs agonizing and twitching for several minutes, inflating like balloons before they suddenly burst.

"It's horrible," biologist Heidi Mayerhoefer was quoted as telling the daily Hamburger Morgenpost.

"The toads burst, the entrails slide out. But the animal isn't immediately dead -- they keep struggling for several minutes."

Hamburg's Institute for Hygiene and the Environment regularly tests water quality in the city and has found no evidence the toads were diseased. The institute also ruled out a fungus brought in from South America was infecting the toads.

Other theories have been that horses on a nearby track might have infected the amphibians with a virus, or even that the toads are committing suicide to save others from overpopulation.

Could hungry crows be a reasonable answer?

"We haven't seen that. It might be, it might not be," said institute spokeswoman Janne Kloepper. "It's speculation," until it's observed, she added.

In the meantime, officials in Hamburg have advised residents to stay away from the pond, which German tabloids have dubbed "the death pool."