[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Mystery of German exploding toads

The toads of Altona are dying in their thousands
Toads in an area of northern Germany are being killed off by a mysterious disease - they are exploding.
Thousands of the amphibians have died in recent days in a pond in Hamburg's Altona district, with their bodies swelling to bursting point.

The toads' entrails are propelled for up to a metre (3.2ft), in scenes that have been likened to science fiction.

Scientists are baffled. Possible explanations include a unknown virus or a fungus in the pond.

"You see the animals crawling on the ground, swelling and then exploding," German conservationist Werner Smolnik told AFP news agency.

The bodies of the toads expanded to three and a half times their normal size, he said.

"I have never seen such a thing," AFP quotes veterinarian Otto Horst as saying. The site - which has been dubbed "the pond of death" - has been closed to the public.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4486247.stm

[Goldfinger]

[BoomStick]

Oh please get me video!!!!

[historylme]

Wouch

[turtle777]

A warning to you all what fastfood can do to you !

*duck*

-t

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by turtle777

*duck*

No, toad, didn't you read the article?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Oisín

No, toad, didn't you read the article?

-t

[starman]

Goose

[Skip Breakfast]

does it qvack?

[MaxPower2k3]

where's that 'this thread is useless without pics' animation?

[gururafiki]

Maybe someone is feeding them antacid tablets or something. I've heard that Seagulls will do the same thing if you give them tums. Gross. Seriously though, amphibians are most affected by global climate change and pollution. I bet this is a sign that the human race is screwed.

[vcutag]

Originally Posted by gururafiki

Maybe someone is feeding them antacid tablets or something. I've heard that Seagulls will do the same thing if you give them tums. Gross. Seriously though, amphibians are most affected by global climate change and pollution. I bet this is a sign that the human race is screwed.

I remember my old man telling me about when he and his brother were kids growing up in Virginia Beach in the 60's, they'd feed seagulls alka-seltzer. Apparently they don't explode so much as foam violently at both ends.

Apparently it got so bad the city government had to pass an ordinance making it illegal to feed antacid to seagulls.

As a result, the number of avian ulcers increased dramatically.

[Millennium]

The bit about small animals exploding when you feed them Alka-Seltzer is an urban legend. Make no mistake; they tend to die, but they suffer a lot longer than they would if they simply exploded.

So, spontaneously-exploding toads, huh? From the report, it sounds as though this is a sudden thing; they don't just inflate gradually. If they inflated gradually, I'd suspect something in the food or water supply; a chemical reaction in the digestive tract could give off gases that might cause this. However, that would probably be a gradual thing. A sudden inflation and explosion is much harder to explain.

[nonhuman]

They must have misbehaved in the chocolate factory.

[TETENAL]

Google revealed this article: http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2023524 of the Austrian yellow press. According to this the theory is that crows are pulling the liver out of the frogs because it tastes well. The frogs then blow themselves up in panic and burst.

ps:
http://www.taz.de/pt/2005/04/16/a0337.nf/text And the TAZ reports that the pond is no longer locked after the Hygiene-Institut found no bacteria. According to the TAZ the Hygiene-Institut believes the birds theory to be absurd.

[analogika]

It wasn't me - I swear.

[Millennium]

I've never heard of frogs or toads inflating themselves in panic before.

Could it be some kind of parasite, perhaps? Perhaps we're dealing with a parasite which gives off gases during some process (laying or hatching eggs, for example) that would cause the frogs to inflate and burst? Such a process would run counter to most evolutionary theories -after all, the exploding toad likely kills the parasite- but perhaps such parasites only recently made the jump to toads and came from a much larger kind of host, which either wouldn't explode or had a means of bleeding off the excess gases?

As another possibility, consider the air sacs which frogs and toads inflate to give off their distinctive call. This sac can be inflated to many times its original size, and must be very strong; perhaps stronger than the rest of the toad's skin. Suppose that a parasite or disease were to attack and weaken the wall between the air sac and the rest of the toad's body. Eventually that wall is completely worn through, and the next time a toad tries to call it inflates its whole body instead. I wouldn't think that a toad could force enough air into its body in this way to actually burst itself, but I could be wrong about that. If true, however, it would certainly account for the suddenness of things.

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by Millennium

Could it be some kind of parasite, perhaps?

No, it couldn't. Read the press release of the Hamburger Hygiene-Institut: http://fhh.hamburg.de/stadt/Aktuell/...ensterben.html

They analysed the toads and the water "pathologically, biologically, and chemically" and found nothing.

[entrox]

Must've been bored kids playing inflate-the-frog-with-a-straw.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by TETENAL

Google revealed this article: http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2023524 of the Austrian yellow press. According to this the theory is that crows are pulling the liver out of the frogs because it tastes well. The frogs then blow themselves up in panic and burst.

That's it. Confirmed.

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/e...353749,00.html

OMG, that is so bizzare.

-t

[f1000]

Originally Posted by turtle777

That's it. Confirmed.

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/e...353749,00.html

OMG, that is so bizzare.

-t

Watch out, slowpoke, you could be next. Let me put my goggles on ->

[Zimphire]

Originally Posted by MaxPower2k3

where's that 'this thread is useless without pics' animation?

[analogika]

I blame it on free health care.

No, wait - that was...oh, ...never mind.

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by turtle777

That's it. Confirmed.

The crows should eat the rest of the frog first and then the tasty liver at last. Eating the liver only is wasteful.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by analogika

I blame it on free health care.

No, wait - that was...oh, ...never mind.

-t

[MaxPower2k3]

Originally Posted by Zimphire

thanks

[f1000]

Originally Posted by TETENAL

The crows should eat the rest of the frog first and then the tasty liver at last. Eating the liver only is wasteful.

Says you.

[Eug Wanker]

[turtle777]

That's a EUG ugly hand

-t

[JustAnOl'Broad]

Originally Posted by [img

http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Frogs,67.jpg[/img]

[FONT=Arial Black]"No, you can't have a toad, you'll shoot your eye out!"[/FONT]

[Millennium]

Originally Posted by turtle777

That's it. Confirmed.

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/e...353749,00.html

OMG, that is so bizzare.

Yeah; tell me about it. That said, though, it sounds as though this only started recently. Did a new murder of crows move in or something?

[Rev-O]

Toadal Annihilation!

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Millennium

Yeah; tell me about it. That said, though, it sounds as though this only started recently. Did a new murder of crows move in or something?

Yay! Someone else who knows the correct word for a "group" of crows

I hate it when people talk about "flocks of crows"

Makes you wonder who thought of calling a group of crows a "murder." And in this particular case, it seems especially appropriate... a murder of crows moves in and starts murdering toads.

[f1000]

Originally Posted by Person Man

Makes you wonder who thought of calling a group of crows a "murder." And in this particular case, it seems especially appropriate... a murder of crows moves in and starts murdering toads.

[bradls]

2 words.

Al qaeda.

Bastards

B.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by bradls

2 words.

Al qaeda.

Bastards

B.

DOUBLE YOO TEE EFF???

What the heck does this have to do with exploding toads?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by bradls

Al qaeda.

Bastards

-t

[invisibleX]

Originally Posted by Person Man

DOUBLE YOO TEE EFF???

What the heck does this have to do with exploding toads?

They blow themselves up, get it? Yeah its stupid.

[gururafiki]

What about frozen frogs?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...120904-12v.htm

They don't explode, but they DO freeze themselves in the winter, and then unfreeze in the spring. And by freeze, I mean their insides turn to ice!

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by gururafiki

What about frozen frogs?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...120904-12v.htm

They don't explode, but they DO freeze themselves in the winter, and then unfreeze in the spring. And by freeze, I mean their insides turn to ice!

Is it frog, or is it ice?

[effgee]

crows, my hiney - just a couple of kids with too much time on their hands ...

[gururafiki]

Originally Posted by nonhuman

Is it frog, or is it ice?

Its a frog...that turns to an icy chunk.

[macaddict0001]

Originally Posted by Person Man

DOUBLE YOO TEE EFF???

What the heck does this have to do with exploding toads?

bush propaganda

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by Person Man

Yay! Someone else who knows the correct word for a "group" of crows

I hate it when people talk about "flocks of crows"

First off, the dictionary defines murder as 'a flock of crows', so they do it too, y'know. And since 'murder' means 'a flock of crows', shouldn't it be incorrect to say 'a murder of crows'? Shouldn't it be just 'a murder'?

Secondly, and this is getting even further off-topic, I just realised, through looking up 'murder' on dictionary.com just exactly how f*cking incredibly many such strange words there are in the English language! I mean, one or two specific words such as 'murder' for crows, or 'kindle' for kittens, that I can understand. But dictionary.com lists 39 different specialised words for different kinds of flocks, packs, gang, litters, or whatevers of different species of animals. Whoever invented English was clearly a complete nutjob.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by Oisín

First off, the dictionary defines murder as 'a flock of crows', so they do it too, y'know. And since 'murder' means 'a flock of crows', shouldn't it be incorrect to say 'a murder of crows'? Shouldn't it be just 'a murder'?

Secondly, and this is getting even further off-topic, I just realised, through looking up 'murder' on dictionary.com just exactly how f*cking incredibly many such strange words there are in the English language! I mean, one or two specific words such as 'murder' for crows, or 'kindle' for kittens, that I can understand. But dictionary.com lists 39 different specialised words for different kinds of flocks, packs, gang, litters, or whatevers of different species of animals. Whoever invented English was clearly a complete nutjob.

Kindle of kittens, eh. I need to start a fire, someone fetch me some kittens!

[Oisín]

How about a sloth of bears, then? Or a covert of coots? A bevy of deer? Gaggle of geese? Gam of whales? School of porpoises? Shrewdness of apes? Skulk of vermin? Sord of mallards? The list goes on...

To plagiarise Theolein's signature: Cwazy wabbits...

[analogika]

This thlead has vealed toadally off coulse.

[turtle777]

The real question is: what's going on with these crows in that area ?

-t