Exploding Toads Baffle Experts

This is really strange. As many as a thousand toads have exploded in a pond in Hamburg, Germany. Scientists are looking at a fungus as a possible culprit. I have never heard of anything like this before, I dont believe there is a precedent for this!

As many as 1,000 toads have died after their bodies swelled to bursting point and then exploded, according to reports from animal welfare workers and veterinarians.

The area around the pond in Hamburg has been cordoned off as experts investigate the dead toads.

www.local6.com...

Same thing was on the news here in belgium about toads in belgium.

Seems some new Toad epîdemic has hit Europe or something. They showed footage of the bloated and burst toads, pritty nasty I'd have to say.

Originally posted by thematrix
Same thing was on the news here in belgium about toads in belgium.

In Belgium as well? That is a scary thought. Often times when there are changes in the enviornment, frogs and toads show evidence of it first.

Exploding is kinda hefty though isn't it XD

If they are swelling until they burst... it would seem to be some kind of gas?

Something they are eating could be the cause?

Very strange.. when you think about it as WOS said .. usually when there is something wrong with the environment, the toads are the among the first to show there is a problem.

It would be interesting if this could be updated when they find out what the exact cause is.

Any pictures?

Sorry... I just want to see exploding Toads....

Originally posted by stumason
Any pictures?

Sorry... I just want to see exploding Toads....

That actualy brings back childhood memory's ... XD

Originally posted by thematrix

Originally posted by stumason
Any pictures?

Sorry... I just want to see exploding Toads....

That actualy brings back childhood memory's ... XD

you wouldn't be talking about the old bicycle pump scenario would ya?

Thats what I thought! Like salting slugs..or using a BB Gun to shoot mice or frogs....or was that just me?

I preferred the ol' frying ants and spiders and other bugs with the magnifying glass trick.

That too! Oh...How many little animals have I slain in my time....

Must be the equivalent of a Bug genocide..... oh well...

I'm sorry, i know they are Gods creatures, but if anything is going to explode let it be a toad. I see one an d i go into cardiac arrest.

Nothing scares me more than a tadpole, a frog or a toad. *Ugh*

Is there any idea why they are exploding? I looked at the link and it said fungus

Hmmm I wonder if they were eating firecrackers

Exploding toads?!?!?! That has to be one of the strangest things I've ever heard of. I wonder why they exploded though.

I think a virus/diesease is making them produce gas inside them....then BANG they explode....wonder if we can get it too....then we can have exploding people....like off starcraft....

Here is some more on this story. The article goes on to say that the toads are for the most part exploding between 2 and 3 am. This is beyond bizarre!

According to reports from animal welfare workers and veterinarians as many as a thousand of the amphibians have perished after their bodies swelled to bursting point and their entrails were propelled for up to a meter.

It is like "a science fiction film," according to Werner Smolnik of a nature protection society in the northern city of Hamburg, where the phenomenon of the exploding toad has been observed.

"You see the animals crawling on the ground, swelling and then exploding."

www.taipeitimes.com...

Originally posted by ArchangelOfCool
I think a virus/diesease is making them produce gas inside them....then BANG they explode....wonder if we can get it too....then we can have exploding people....like off starcraft....

Only difference is that if we did get it, we'd just burp or pass gas. Birds and toads and such don't have that ability.

I heard about this just this morning....how odd is that?

One of our newspaper in switzerland ("le matin") have also revealed that those facts have also been observed near ponds in "Kanton Zurich" (Near south germany). (Date is 21.)

Scientists here also talks about fungus that provokes a critical dilatation of all the liquid in the toad bodies... No clue of how scientifical is this, though...

a fungas that makes toads explodes whate else will mother nature think fo next

but never heard of such a thing