Exploding toads baffle German experts

Kinda like blowing the egg out of the shell to make cascarones.

Weird, wild stuff.

And you thought I was making all of this up...

:wink:

The germans also face the worlds highest number of cancer cases.I think all those explosive have gotten into the water and now everyone there is coming down with drastic horrible thiungs. If this is happening to the toads, and we are gentically placed very close to them. Then our fate cannot be far behind. According to the powers that be if you find mutated frogs in your vacinity then you are the next species to go.Apparetly disregarding look size and functioning they are our amphibain counterparts.

Birds May Be Behind Exploding German Toads

By MATT SURMAN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 20 minutes ago

BERLIN - Why are toads puffing up and spontaneously exploding in northern Europe? It began in a posh German neighborhood and has spread across the border into Denmark. It's left onlookers baffled, but one German scientist studying the splattered amphibian remains now has a theory: Hungry crows may be pecking out their livers.
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"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."

So far, more than 1,000 toad corpses have been found at a pond in Hamburg and in Denmark. But the pond water in Hamburg has been tested, and its quality is no better or worse than elsewhere in the city. The remains have been checked for a virus or bacteria, but none has been found.

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 a balloon before suddenly bursting.

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

"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 found no evidence that the toads were diseased. The institute even ruled out that the toads were suffering because of a fungus brought in from South America.

Other theories have been that horses on a nearby track infected them with a virus, or even that the toads are taking the selfless way out ?- sacrificing themselves by 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 said.

Local officials in Hamburg were advising residents to stay away from the pond dubbed by German tabloids, "the death pool."

bobsmythhawk, my previously given AP report gives the latest results - as published here in Germany [in German] already more than 12 hours ago :wink:

Sorry Walter. I missed it. My bad.

I liked that article, bobsmythhawk. Thanks for your trouble.

I'm not buying the Hey, I'll live for a while without a liver explanation. You can't live without a liver.

That's psychotic.

It's God. Don't you see? It's his distain for France and Germany.

German....frogs....He's blowing them up....

He has blowed them up real good.

This happens to cattle also if you don't vary their feed. I read a story recently about a farm that went into receivership for one reason or another, and the administrator overseeing the estate figured they could just feed the cows from leftover feed. Something like 100 of them died when one or more of their stomachs exploded.

There's usually an explanation, sometimes toxic, sometimes just a learning experience.

Yeah, it's a bitch when you can't eructate.

Now there is a real sick puppy!

Are we sure these toads aren't some sort of suicide bombers?

Al Toadya

That is so dense.

It's sick frogs.

Suicide bombers...!

Trying to work Mengele in....

hmmm. why does a frog sit still and let a crow come by and pluck it's liver out? i wouldn't like that one bit.

They're busy watching the Muppet Show. That's why it happens between 2 and 3 -- that's when they do back-to-back reruns of der Muppet Show on der TV Land.

aaaah yes. i can see that. it all makes sense now.

It's the small details that make the picture complete.