Quite an undignified death. The toads puff up to close to four times their size and then pop.
Posted on 05/01/2005 2:37:51 PM PDT by NCjim
Hamburg's toad population is exploding -- literally. Toad entrails and mangled body parts now litter the city's once bucolic lake. What's the cause? Austria's most famous racist -- Joerg Haider -- is again eyeing the chancellory. A German political party calls for the removal of US nukes. If all that's got you down, just grab an ice cream -- researchers say it'll make you happy.
Hamburg is often known as an idyllic port city of book publishers and media giants. Lately, however, the city's peace and quiet has been interrupted by a sickening natural oddity. Over 1,000 of the city's greenish-brown toads have swelled up to almost four times their normal size and then -- BANG! -- exploded, sending horrific entrails and body parts several feet into the pristine air. Stunned residents have nicknamed their city's once bucolic lake the "pond of death" and officials have cordoned off the area for investigation. Vets and animal welfare agencies have spent days puzzling over the deeply troubling and downright disgusting mystery. Is it a fungus? Is it a virus? Are the toads simply suicidal?
Now, one amphibian specialist in Berlin, Dr. Frank Mutschmann, has come up with a clear -- albeit frightening answer. "It was probably crows," he said. Apparently, the nasty black bird's favorite treat is tasty foie de frog. The birds likely have been attacking the toads, pecking out their livers and then flying away. The rightly-terrified toads have then tried the only defense nature has given them -- they've puffed up in hopes of scaring the attacking bird away. But, with a hole in their bellies and no liver left, the "the lungs burst and the rest of the organs shoot straight out of the toads," Mutschmann said. The truly scary part is that about three to five hungry crows may be responsible for all the deaths. "Crows are very intelligent animals," Mutschmann said. "They learn quickly where, in just a short amount of time, they can come across lots of delicious livers." Perhaps it's time for a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." (2:30 p.m. CET)
Quite an undignified death. The toads puff up to close to four times their size and then pop.
Art Bell has been talking about this a lot on his programme. Of course, we can imagine what he believes is the cause...
Ick!
The article I read on this said that maybe it was like "The Birds", the Hitchcock movie, and that the birds were scaring the toads to death! Too bizarre!
There have been a lot of posts about toads croaking.
Again with the toads?
When the toads heard that John Kerry was one of them, they all agreed to self-destruct.
Sheep are killed by ants. Sort of.
The liver fluke worm lays eggs which are excreted in the feces of an animal. The feces then break down leaving the eggs behind. The egg is extra tasty to the aquatic and land snail. Unfortunately the egg, once consumed by the snail throws out spines and lodges in the snails throat. The snail vomits out the goo and egg. Now ants find snail vomit to be extra tasty and they gobble up the puke and egg, which recognizes the ant's metabolism and keeps it's spines in check. Instead it sends out a neurotoxin into the ant's system which causes it to climb the highest thing it can find and sit there at precisely five to seven in the evening. The prime time for sheep to graze in summer months is five to seven in the evening, and they prefer the clean untrampled top-most portion of the blades of pasture grasses, where the ant waits like he's on LSD or something, to be gobbled up and where the egg then hatches in the sheep's system. Here's the cool part too......Because summer gets droughts, aquatic or swampy areas continue to produce grass even when it's gone dormant elsewhere, so assuring the perpetuation of the liver fluke organism.
Exploding toads ?
There was a movie called "The Nightcomers" in the 70's starring Marlon Brando and Stephanie Beecham. It was a prequel to "The Turn of the Screw". In it Quint begins initiating the children to evil by showing them that if you put a cigar in a toad's mouth it will happily smoke away until it puffs up and explodes.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1394139/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1393102/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1392787/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1392657/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1392303/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1389980/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1389859/posts
What, global warming? Oh, you mean aliens. I just cant keep it straight with him.
Hugh frogs, series problem, blame Bush!
About 20 years ago there were some crows that were killing sheep. They would perch on their backs and peck at their lower backs, where there is a lot of fat around the kidneys.
To Post #7 - Wow! Parasites 101 in succinct condensed format! This goes in my goat folder! Thanx!
Whatever happened to all the deformed toad headlines a couple years ago? They tried to blame pesticides but no go. Then they tried to blame the fountain/small pond business. Guess it bred itself out(?).
To Post #7 - Wow! Parasites 101 in succinct condensed format! This goes in my goat folder! Thanx!
Whatever happened to all the deformed toad headlines a couple years ago? They tried to blame pesticides but no go. Then they tried to blame the fountain/small pond business. Guess it bred itself out(?).
Isn't it open season on crows year round in the US? I hear its edible but I've never been that hungry.
To turn it into a true German and credible story:
Americans must be part of these explosions in one way or another.
LOL. Maybe, it is both! somehow, the Freemasons, the Rothschilds, Bildeburgers, and the Trilateral Commission are involved. :-)
When George Noory is hosting, the Frog Explosions are somehow the fault of Halliburton. :-)
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