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Exploding toads baffle German experts
AFP/Yahoo ^ | Sat Apr 23,12:16 PM ET

Posted on 04/23/2005 2:57:10 PM PDT by martin_fierro

Exploding toads baffle German experts

Sat Apr 23,12:16 PM ET

BERLIN (AFP) - Hundreds of toads have met a bizarre and sinister end in Germany in recent days, it was reported: they exploded.

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 (three feet).

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 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 2:00 and 3:00 am, 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.


TOPICS: Cheese, Moose, Sister; Chit/Chat; Pets/Animals; Test Topic, Ignore It; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: toadexplode
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1 posted on 04/23/2005 2:57:11 PM PDT by martin_fierro
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To: martin_fierro

Jihadist toads?


2 posted on 04/23/2005 2:58:05 PM PDT by Spruce
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To: mikrofon; Charles Henrickson

The toads in Schaprode explode mainly on the road.

3 posted on 04/23/2005 2:58:06 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: martin_fierro

awlright guys....anybody got the Helen Thomas photo.....


4 posted on 04/23/2005 2:58:38 PM PDT by mo
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To: martin_fierro

Do they croak "Allah-Akbar" before they detonate themselves?


5 posted on 04/23/2005 2:59:01 PM PDT by Spruce
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To: martin_fierro

By George, I think you've got it!


6 posted on 04/23/2005 3:00:38 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: martin_fierro
Access to it has been sealed off and every night a biologist visits it between 2:00 and 3:00 am, which appears to be peak time for batrachians to go bang.

Oh, sure ... the biologist "visits" them. I think we need look no further for the cause. Just check for genital warts and the case is closed.

7 posted on 04/23/2005 3:00:39 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: martin_fierro

Don't sheep blow up if they eat green stuff...or something like that?


8 posted on 04/23/2005 3:00:42 PM PDT by bannie (The government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.)
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To: mikrofon; Charles Henrickson

Nature abhors a vacuum.

9 posted on 04/23/2005 3:01:24 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: martin_fierro; LibertarianInExile

Steve Martin had an old drug skit about "Getting Small."

Has DU and Soros got a new eeeeevil drug and are testing it on themselves?

Since of course they wouldn't explode REAL toads, they're PETAphiles....


10 posted on 04/23/2005 3:05:03 PM PDT by The Spirit Of Allegiance (ATTN. MARXIST RED MSM: I RESENT your "RED STATE" switcheroo using our ELECTORAL MAP as PROPAGANDA!)
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To: bannie
Don't sheep blow up if they eat green stuff...or something like that?

They can die of bloating, but I've never heard of them actually popping.

11 posted on 04/23/2005 3:05:20 PM PDT by SIDENET (Yankee Air Pirate)
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To: martin_fierro

Would this kinda be like what happens when you put 'em in a microwave??


12 posted on 04/23/2005 3:06:01 PM PDT by Fam4Bush ('Coon Luvva.... : ))
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To: martin_fierro; mikrofon

"Ich bin ein Ballooner."
13 posted on 04/23/2005 3:06:37 PM PDT by Charles Henrickson (Ich bin ein Tagliner.)
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To: martin_fierro

Der Frosch ist kaput!

Auch du Lieber! Abducken und verschleiern!

<:o


14 posted on 04/23/2005 3:10:59 PM PDT by bannie (The government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.)
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To: martin_fierro

Die kroten in Schaprode explodieren hauptsachlich
auf der strasse.

There that has a more fingerspitzengefel about it.


15 posted on 04/23/2005 3:11:02 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: bannie

Don't sheep blow up if they eat green stuff...

yes you have to go out and puncture their stomach with
a pin to let the gas out.

Kind of ruins it for haggis later though.


16 posted on 04/23/2005 3:12:51 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: martin_fierro

If I recall, Toad Suck Ferry ain't too far from Bubba's place.


17 posted on 04/23/2005 3:14:34 PM PDT by stboz
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To: martin_fierro

Is there a German faction of PETA out there? What do they think of this??


18 posted on 04/23/2005 3:21:32 PM PDT by k2blader (Immorality bites.)
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To: martin_fierro

Same thing happened sixty years ago in Hamburg !!!!


19 posted on 04/23/2005 3:24:26 PM PDT by crowman
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To: tet68

"yes you have to go out and puncture their stomach with
a pin to let the gas out.. "

I just about killed 15 to 20 dairy cows once, leaving them out in the alfalfa too long. I was taking a nap with my 2 year old...woke up and one of them was barely standing, due to the pressure on her heart. I flagged down an 80 y.o. out for a walk, and a drunken 70 y.o. driving (yes, driving) by, while awaiting the vet to show up from the other side of the county. When he got there, he stabbed them with not a pin, but a big knife in the (1 of 4) stomach(s). He then proceeded to do 4 or 5 more cows, instructing me how to handle it "next time." Fortunately the incident never repeated. I don't think this would work on a road toad with an overload...


20 posted on 04/23/2005 3:59:21 PM PDT by Fam4Bush ('Coon Luvva.... : ))
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