Exploding toads in Germany

slerch666

updyke,
Joined
May 23, 2002
Posts
8,984
Believe it. Here's the BBC news article on it.

and here it is copy and pasted for the lazy ones among us:

Mystery of German exploding toads
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.

The exploding toads have also crossed the border north into Denmark, according to Danish Radio.

It reported that a large number of toads that live in a pond near Laasby in central Jutland have started to suffer the same fate as the German amphibians.

The toads crawl onto the land, swell up and explode in the middle of the night, the radio said.

My favorite part is the section about the guts shooting into the air as high as a metre. Lovely. How come we can get vids or pics of the really cool news stories, instead we get them for kids being handcuffed.

If I had children, I'd send them to play in the pond have movie cameras setup Matrix style so I could pan around the guts as they explode and post cool videos for people online.
 

neo>all

Super nO0b
Joined
Jan 21, 2005
Posts
4,339
slerch666 said:
Believe it. Here's the BBC news article on it.

and here it is copy and pasted for the lazy ones among us:



My favorite part is the section about the guts shooting into the air as high as a metre. Lovely. How come we can get vids or pics of the really cool news stories, instead we get them for kids being handcuffed.

If I had children, I'd send them to play in the pond have movie cameras setup Matrix style so I could pan around the guts as they explode and post cool videos for people online.

That would be a priceless vid ^^
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
Very crazy....HAD to be something in the water, reacting with their internal frog magic, or whatever it is that makes frogs work....I dunno, I'm merely a fungineer.
 

slerch666

updyke,
Joined
May 23, 2002
Posts
8,984
I just wish the press would take some pics of the damn exploded toads. Bastards.
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
4410390.jpg


only pic I could find
 

Arcademan

Now...It's OFFICIAL!!!
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2003
Posts
19,623
It's a new form of terrorist attack...smuggle in frogs and let them do all the exploding...undetectable by metal detectors :kekeke:
 

neo>all

Super nO0b
Joined
Jan 21, 2005
Posts
4,339
Arcademan said:
It's a new form of terrorist attack...smuggle in frogs and let them do all the exploding...undetectable by metal detectors :kekeke:

Bush is going to start a war against terrorism hunting down and destroying the weapons of mass destruction AKA deadly toads. Terrorist alert will be green.
 

aria

Former Moderator
Joined
Dec 4, 1977
Posts
39,546
Toadally bogus, dude.

I hope there's a vid soon too.
 

Kristian Meller

Vanguard Pilot
10 Year Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2013
Posts
3,211
As mentioned, we've got them here in Denmark too. At one lake they're exploding like in Germany, and at another lake they're apparently just dried out for some reason. A biologist found 50 toads lying on the same rock, all dead the same way. I don't know if they're drying out or exploding because of too many eggs not being laid soon enough, but it's weird anyway.

EDIT:

Found it at another paper's site:

050427182635946.jpg


Laasby isn't far from here, so I COULD go and make some vids some day ;)
 
Last edited:

aria

Former Moderator
Joined
Dec 4, 1977
Posts
39,546
Kristian Meller said:
050427182635946.jpg


Laasby isn't far from here, so I COULD go and make some vids some day ;)

Yikes!

(if you did make a video you'd certainly get many offers to host it)
 

Takumaji

Master Enabler
Staff member
Joined
Jul 24, 2001
Posts
19,029
In other news, Germany also suffers from a wave of spontaneously combusting mice which caused a number of fires in the rural parts of the country.

Pics and vids coming soon.
 
Joined
May 29, 2002
Posts
4,771
Update:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../ap/20050428/ap_on_sc/germany_exploding_toads

As quoted:
"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."
 

Mark of the Wolves

mullet bullet
Joined
Apr 7, 2002
Posts
6,984
Electroman said:
Update:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../ap/20050428/ap_on_sc/germany_exploding_toads

As quoted:
"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."

Wait so why don't they have a liver? I'm to lazy to click the link.
 

slerch666

updyke,
Joined
May 23, 2002
Posts
8,984
Mark of the Wolves said:
Wait so why don't they have a liver? I'm to lazy to click the link.
Supposedly the crows in the area swoop in and some how miraculously suck the liver out from between their abdomen and chest. The toads swell themselves up as a defensive reaction and since there is a hole in the toad's body, the swelling pushes blood and eventually the toads guts out through the hole.

Of course, reading the entire article they don't seem to have PROOF that the crows are exploding the toads, it's all speculation.

Man, I REALLY need a video of an exploding toad...
 

pixeljunkie

Whilst Drunk., I Found God., Booze = Bad.,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Posts
7,107
Electroman said:
Update:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../ap/20050428/ap_on_sc/germany_exploding_toads

As quoted:
"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."

very interesting, [dusts hands off] and thats the end of that chapter...
 

Arcademan

Now...It's OFFICIAL!!!
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2003
Posts
19,623
This article appeared in the morning paper today so it must be true ;)
 

Spike Spiegel

Onigami Isle Castaway
20 Year Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2001
Posts
13,681
pixeljunkie said:
4410390.jpg


only pic I could find

I don't know what I'm even looking at there. Exploding? What a way to go... also, I don't believe it.
 

Kristian Meller

Vanguard Pilot
10 Year Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2013
Posts
3,211
Uhm, it's very much true. Why don't you believe it? Didn't you see the huge pile of dead toads in the other picture?

I don't believe the crow story though. A danish biologist talked about the "too many unfertilised eggs"-theory, and it kinda sounds more believeable than the one where a bird is supposed to swoop in an eat something specific straight out of a live toad.

The egg-thing also happened in Sweden to 150 toads a couple of years ago. Another biologist here in Aarhus witnessed it himself.
 
Last edited:

soulthug

Wannabe Thug,, born 1991
15 Year Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Posts
8,711
ProfessorFrink said:
Should have been hand grenades in Stranger's Wrath. Oddworld got out of games too quickly. :D
This man is a genius!
 
Top