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Exploding toads baffle experts
Australian Broadcasting ^ | 2005-04-24 | AFP

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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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Germany; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: artbell; burst; bursting; callingartbell; dropsy; environment; frogs; germany; hamburg; toad; toads
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1 posted on 04/23/2005 8:45:05 PM PDT by Lessismore
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To: Lessismore

Coming soon to a theatre near you


2 posted on 04/23/2005 8:46:32 PM PDT by woofie (I am so not kidding.)
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To: martin_fierro
ribbi--BOOM!
3 posted on 04/23/2005 8:47:48 PM PDT by drlevy88
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To: Lessismore

Posted here earlier:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1389859/posts


4 posted on 04/23/2005 8:47:56 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (L'chaim!)
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To: Lessismore

Bad case of swamp gas.


5 posted on 04/23/2005 8:48:05 PM PDT by FReepaholic (Vote for Pedro)
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To: drlevy88
ribbi--BOOM!

And the answer is What happens to a toad when he has gas and can't fart?????

6 posted on 04/23/2005 8:49:54 PM PDT by org.whodat
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To: Lessismore

The weirdest and sickest things always happen in either Germany or Florida.


7 posted on 04/23/2005 8:49:55 PM PDT by Mongeaux
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To: Lessismore

Wannabe terrorist toads?


8 posted on 04/23/2005 8:50:04 PM PDT by Bouchart (I Will Crush You)
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To: woofie

9 posted on 04/23/2005 8:50:27 PM PDT by woofie (I am so not kidding.)
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To: drlevy88

AAGGG - ROTFLMBO!!!!!!!!


10 posted on 04/23/2005 8:51:34 PM PDT by time4good
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To: Bouchart

"Wannabe terrorist toads?"

TSA nightmare!!!!!

When Terror Toads Attack!!


11 posted on 04/23/2005 8:52:21 PM PDT by politicalwit (USA...A Nation of Selective Law Enforcement.)
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To: Lessismore

You don't suppose somebody has got a hold on one those new-fangled energy-beam weapons......


12 posted on 04/23/2005 8:54:11 PM PDT by stboz
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To: tscislaw
Bad case of swamp gas.

Real bad.

13 posted on 04/23/2005 8:54:26 PM PDT by harrowup (Just naturally perfect, humble of course and obviously incapable of discrimination.)
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To: drlevy88

Sort of like mother natures little bottle rockets?


14 posted on 04/23/2005 8:55:07 PM PDT by Tom602 (Democrats: Against the death penalty for convicted murderers and for killing the unborn & disabled.)
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To: Lessismore

WHAT HAPPEN?


15 posted on 04/23/2005 8:59:30 PM PDT by RichInOC (TAKE OFF EVERY 'TOAD'. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DOING. MOVE 'TOAD'. FOR GREAT JUSTICE.)
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To: Lessismore

Is this what happened to Michael Moore on election night?


16 posted on 04/23/2005 9:03:43 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out Of Hand?)
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To: Lessismore
Did the toads recently convert to islam? Have they now become suicide bomber toads?
Inquiring minds want to know.
17 posted on 04/23/2005 9:05:15 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (This Tagline for sale. (Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: harrowup

bufotine


18 posted on 04/23/2005 9:05:25 PM PDT by Kay Syrah (--)
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To: Lessismore

"Its a beautiful evening,lets sit on the porch tonight Mother an watch the toads explode"


19 posted on 04/23/2005 9:07:08 PM PDT by woofie (I am so not kidding.)
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To: Kay Syrah
Thanks; I really needed that to make my day...I knew when I read this story that there was some guy it reminded me of....I have it copied for fun on Monday.
20 posted on 04/23/2005 9:08:59 PM PDT by harrowup (Just naturally perfect, humble of course and obviously incapable of discrimination.)
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