Exploading Toads
 

I happened upon this strange article this morning. It really seems too out of this world to be true. Even so it makes you wonder.

I wonder if these scientists have considered pranking kids with alka selzer tablets? There's not much to go on. Thought I would share anyway.

Exploading Toads

BERLIN - More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks, and scientists still have no explanation for what's causing the combustion, an official said Wednesday.

Both the pond's water and body parts of the toads have been tested, but scientists have been unable to find a bacteria or virus that would cause the toads to swell up and pop, said Janne Kloepper, of the Hamburg-based Institute for Hygiene and the Environment.

"It's absolutely strange," she said. "We have a really unique story here in Hamburg. This phenomenon really doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere before."

The toads at a pond in the upscale neighborhood of Altona have been blowing up since the beginning of the month, filling up like balloons until their stomachs suddenly burst.

"It looks like a scene from a science-fiction movie," Werner Schmolnik, the head of a local environment group, told the Hamburger Abendblatt daily. "The bloated animals suffer for several minutes before they finally die."

Biologists have come up with several theories, but Kloepper said that most have been ruled out.

The pond's water quality is no better or worse than other bodies of water in Hamburg, the toads did not appear to have a disease, and a laboratory in Berlin has ruled out the possibility that it is a fungus that made its way from South America, she said.

She said that tests will continue. In the meantime, city residents have been warned to stay away from the pond.

Oooh Exploding humans - that could be fun... Can we send in some 'volunteers' to see fi they explode. all i the name of science of course.

spiegel.de reported today that the reason for those toads to explode are the crows who eat the livers of the toads. the toads pump themself up as a defence trick but since they are wounded they explode.

complete article (in german) here: http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/e...353749,00.html

:lol: wikipedia already has an article about the exploding toads (including a picture of an exploded toad):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_toad

it sounds like the beginning of a Clive Cussler...Dirk Pitt...story

I dreamt about these bastards last night. I dreamt that I found the explanation. It was some kind of acid base reaction in the toads bellies. The reason they werent opening their mouths to let out the gas was because they have really stick lips??? (dream logic)

The toads are wounded and then they puff themselves up?? How is it that the crows only want the liver and know where it is?? I can't read german so I don't know if that one link tells or not.

Hehe, indeed it does! However, the pond would need to have some sort of access to the ocean at some point....

well of course!! Its a pond partially fed by a small underground saltwater tributary and while investigating the path the water takes they discover an ancient cave full a noxious gas, long thought not to exist anymore, where freshwater and salt water mix with the gas and travel to the pond and have an adverse affect on the frogs (and fish). In the end they find out that some diabolical foriegner planned on people eating the fish and frog legs so that they could control the town to send them into the world to do their evil bidding :lol:

Exploding toads? Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse or something? I'll have to go check the Rapture Index...;)

Actually, on closer examination, it seems that there was a toad sized madrassa in the reeds at the edge of the pond. :rolleyes:

crows are quite clever, once they have figured out where the liver is the only eat that (if they are not too hungry).

at least thats what the article says.

Damnit, why couldn't it have been exploding sheep?

*Baa-BOOM!*

a bully hits you you "puff up" entrails fly.. not good no not good at all

i can just see it .. dude takes his date to the "pond" to hit the romance meter. makes his move then they are covers in "extreme toadic slime" hehe

but still that is just freakin weird. another weird fact to chock up on toads. another was put one in boiling water it will try and hop out.. but put on in cold water and bring it to a boil it will just stay there and die.

Furry - Play some Worms Armageddon...sheep bombs come standard :p