Posted on 04/23/2005 8:45:05 PM PDT by Lessismore
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.
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Ping!
(I guess???)
Beavis and Butthead Alert?
Or, the toads may have been drinking calcium-rich water and ingesting a bit of acid around the same time and, a few minutes later, good old CO2 bubbles up, or out, as you may.
LOL! Who set us up the toad?
All your toad farts ARE belong to us......
Perhaps it's a toad Jihad protesting against the German pope.
They should know better than to eat Pop-Rocks and then drink a can of soda.
What a novel way for them to croak!
OK, I didn't get the memo, but something tells me that this toad thing is seriesly hugh and will impact women and minorities the hardest...Ping me if I'm proven wrong...
Alka-Seltzer for toads
Sounds like a from of the black death.
Please explode.
"Sounds like a from of the black death."
How many times do I have to tell you, don't use two prepositions together...
Exploding toads........Again....
yeast infections?
The casino goes to the swamp and takes bets on which is the next toad to blow up.
Ummm... were you and your brother here???
Maybe the toads have been ingesting the contents of a discarded, unused MRE heater. All the necessary elements - closed container (a.k.a. toad), MRE secret heater crystals, water (from pond). Hoppity hoppity, hoppiBOOM....
follower by the sound of running footsteps and maniacal laughter...
Schadenfrosch?
"What a novel way for them to croak!"
I hate puns, but this one's a beaut.
Did sombody throw some Alcoseltzer into the pond?
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