From ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) -

Exploding toads baffle experts


German explosions: could they hold the answer to the cane toad problem?

Hundreds of toads have met an unexplained, explosive demise in Germany in recent days, it was reported on Saturday.

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 metre.

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," he said.

He said the bodies of the toads expanded to three-and-a-half times their normal size.

"I have never seen such a thing," said veterinarian Otto Horst.

So bad has the death toll been that the lake in the Altona district of Hamburg has been dubbed "the pond of death".

Access to it has been sealed off and every night a biologist visits it between 2:00am and 3:00am, which appears to be peak time for batrachians to go bang.

Explanations include an unknown virus, a fungus that has infected the water, or crows, which in an echo of the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds, attack the toads, literally scaring them to death.

-AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1352292.htm

pop goes the toad


thats wierd lol

Oh dear, that article has made me wonder about my sense of humour! The mental image of exploding toads did make me snigger...

how odd, i wonder why its happening?

Hrmm. My guess is this is not a natural phenomina. It most likely has to do with humans impact on the toads natural environment. Chemicals infecting the drinking water having unusual reactions with them, or something to that extend.

Poor things.

Oh, that's awful. Hope they figure out what's causing it before it affects more than the toads.

yeah probably some sort of chemical imbalance caused by an introduction of a foreign element into their diet or environment, weird though

I'm guessing that it might be the introduction of radioactive materials into the water.

Yes, because radioactive materials get dumped into woodlands everywhere these days.

yupp

Is it just me, or do you guys see Kermit the frog swelling up, waving his arms, and then exploding? I am having a ball thinking this! Love explosions.

Tis true that amphibians are the first to suffer from
our pollution. Of course it's not radioactive but it sure
wouldn't suprise me if man was to blame, remember
all the 3 legged and deformed frogs in (I think) minn.?
That was a few years ago so who knows whats
happening to them now.
Some species are all but gone...

But wot the hell would blow them up??

they were iraqi frogs!saddam shipped them out before we invaded.looks like the president finally found where all those wmds are!
seriously though,you can give a bird,cat,or dog an alka seltzer and they'll explode.

Well, I was thinking Poprocks and Pepsi...

may be a case of increase or loss of pressure in their enviroment which they are in

same with deep water fish as the pressure drops as they come towards the water surface they kinda tend to explode

I think Saruman covered this on the front page news board?

I knew taya was evil, lol

i'm just curious...

is it just one gender of frog exploding, or both male and female?

Chemicals maybe? Or nuclear waste?

I dunno, but it reminds me of a childrens book. Can't remember the title though.

"Explanations include an unknown virus, a fungus that has infected the water, or crows, which in an echo of the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds, attack the toads, literally scaring them to death."

hey its happening in berlin, i used to live there....weird

Wow... thats really messed up. I couldnt help but laugh at the thought of the toads just swelling and popping like a balloon. But seriously though.. thats terrible. I would just feel aweful, and not to mension scared if that happened aorund here.

Me too!

True story: 7 Hz is the resonant frequency of a chicken's skull cavity.
This was determined empirically in Australia, where a new factory generating 7-Hz tones was located too close to a chicken ranch: When the factory started up, all the chickens died.

I think something similar is happening with these toads.

Nobody move!! This toad is primed to go off

Reckon it could be the old Urban myth similair to the pigeons and alka seltzer?

My dad made a toad explode once. In the old country. He moved some wood and saw the toad in the mud (after I screamed "FROG!"). So he took a log and smashed it. It blew up on impact. There was toad feces everywhere. And on my legs. I screamed some more and ran around the house trying to get toad doody off my legs without touching it.

What is my point in telling this tale? To inform you that an exploding toad is to be both respected and feared.

Mr. Toad? Is he okay, did Mr. Toad live in Germany...? ...No this can't be.... NOT MR TOAD!

More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks, and German scientists still have no explanation for what's causing the combustion...read more on http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/0...s.ap/index.html

Freak of nature? or a sequel to Japan Minamata Bay Disease?

crescentmoon, i've merged your topic with the other exploding frogs topic.

Thats so odd. I was listening to the radio this morning and it said it could very well just be a scare tatic to keep the birds away. Suicide to keep fellow toads alive. ~shrugs~

Recently they discovered what the natives of the Amazon call "chicken-eating spiders." Suckers (especially true of spiders, no pun intended) have legs as thick as an adults forefinger. Aired on a National Geographic special.

Icthyologists (fish scientists) recently discovered a species of fish in the ocean which they could not describe saying that it looks entirely unlike any fish known to science.

Heheheh. Who is inflating the frogs!?!

could be a new species of toad, whos self defense mechanism is to blow up

lol ribbit ribbit hop hop KAPOW BOOM!!!!!!!!!

The first thead on this can be found at: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39069