Exploding Toads Puzzle German Scientists

[Quixote1818]

Didn't Bush like to blow up Toads and Frogs when he was a kid?

Exploding Toads Puzzle German Scientists
'We Have a Really Unique Story Here in Hamburg'

BERLIN (April 27) - More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks, and scientists still have no explanation for what's causing the combustion, an official said Wednesday.

Both the pond's water and body parts of the toads have been tested, but scientists have been unable to find a bacteria or virus that would cause the toads to swell up and pop, said Janne Kloepper, of the Hamburg-based Institute for Hygiene and the Environment.

''It's absolutely strange,'' she said. ''We have a really unique story here in Hamburg. This phenomenon really doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere before.''

The toads at a pond in the upscale neighborhood of Altona have been blowing up since the beginning of the month, filling up like balloons until their stomachs suddenly burst.

''It looks like a scene from a science-fiction movie,'' Werner Schmolnik, the head of a local environment group, told the Hamburger Abendblatt daily. ''The bloated animals suffer for several minutes before they finally die.''

Continued at:

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050427103109990001

[atommom]

1. Sounds like a Monty Python skit, but I'm sure it's no joke to the

poor toads. Very strange...

[Fovea]

2. I can only imagine how people drinking the local

water feel... Probably they are not drinking it, come to think of it.

[tjwash]

3. That's actually terrible news.

Frogs and toads are very sensitive to shifts and toxins in the environment. When they start dying en-masse, that's the first sign that something has started to invade/degrade the ecosystem. From there, it moves up the chain until it hits people...

[atommom]

5. That's very true. Amphibians are the canaries in the coal mine.

Unfortunately, the people who make policy won't care about that, unless they're forced to. :eyes:

[lenidog]

11. They are the canaries but usually the canary just drops dead

and doesn't explode. This is VERY bizarre. Off the top of my head I can't think of anything that would cause a toad to explode. Unless its like the deal with seagulls and someone is feeding them alka seltzer. :wtf:

[tjwash]

15. They have a lot of nuclear power plants in Germany.

And the water used in them to run the turbines is usually re-fed back into the rivers. I wonder if they have done radiation readings?

[lenidog]

18. Don't know what to tell you except whatever the explanation is

its going to sound like it straight out of a science fiction novel. The story itself is already sounds like it came out of a book of urban legends.

[megatherium]

22. I doubt it. The water from the turbines comes nowhere near

the core of the reactor. If the plant is properly run, they're monitoring possible radiation and would know if there's a problem.

They had a small nuclear reactor on campus where I went to college; its secondary cooling water circulated through the pond. No exploding frogs there, not that I recall. The students were very strange, but that had more to do with psychedelic drugs than radiation.

[prodigal_green]

8. My thoughts exactly

It is right there under our noses, but governments won't accept the evidence. Even if they don't know the exact cause of this particular phenomenon, one must assume something creepy is happening in the water or the froggy food chain.

[atommom]

21. Has to be something that produces gas inside them. I'd like to see

an analysis of that water ... and I can't help but wonder if there are some sick humans feeding them something nasty on purpose.

[Arkana]

4. Puzzles me too, and I'm not a scientist.

[BringEmOn]

6. Oh...no thanks...If I eat one more fly I'm gonna burst.

[Ian David]

7. Can anyone find a Beavis and Butthead "Frog Baseball" graphic?

Meanwhile...


Mystery of German exploding toads
Toad (Pic courtesy of Freefoto)

The toads of Altona are dying in their thousands
Toads in an area of northern Germany are being killed off by a mysterious disease - they are exploding.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4486247.stm




Think of all the hate there is in Red China!
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama!
Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space,
But when your return, it's the same old place,
The poundin' of the drums, th pride and disgrace,
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace,
Hate your next-door-neighbor, but don't forget to say grace,
And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Eve Of Destruction
Barry McGuire
http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Lyrics/1965/271965.html

[Ian David]

9. Exploding Scientists puzzle German Toads

[Avalux]

10. first sign of the apocalyse

In Germany no less; right where Pope Ratz is from. :hide:

[lenidog]

12. If this is the first sign of the apocalypse then I want my money back

I was led to believe that it would start with something more grandiose than exploding frogs.

[Ian David]

13. The toads' entrails are propelled for up to a metre (3.2ft)

The German toads, they are explodin',
Violence flarin', bullets loadin',
And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Mystery of German exploding toads
From The BBC


<snip>

The toads' entrails are propelled for up to a metre (3.2ft), in scenes that have been likened to science fiction.

<snip>

The bodies of the toads expanded to three and a half times their normal size, he said.

"I have never seen such a thing," AFP quotes veterinarian Otto Horst as saying. The site - which has been dubbed "the pond of death" - has been closed to the public.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4486247.stm

[BringEmOn]

14. Disappearing Anthrax Scientists Puzzles Toads.

[TWiley]

16. Sounds like Alka-Seltzer or something like it.

Republican children around here feed them to sea-gulls to kill them.

[Auntie Bush]

17. Eeeeewwwwwww! That is sickening! Poor Toads!

Has anyone checked the where abouts of bush at night? Maybe he's been paying then a visit! Maybe he was there when Gannon couldn't make it and he took his frustrations out on the poor toads. Yeah, that could be it! Have they checked their DNA? Sure sounds like George's M.O.

[Cyrano]

19. A fundamentalist acquaintance told me that if toads don't believe in Jesus

they tend to explode.

He added that the same thing happens to humans who don't believe in Jesus, but that this phenomenon is being kept a secret by a cabal of "Northeastern liberal establishment, gay, wine-sipping, Brie-eating Jews," who are afraid to "let the truth get out."

I guess that's a possible reason that we haven't heard about it happening here.

(Note: For those who don't grasp satire, he never said "Brie-eating."

[HamdenRice]

20. WRONG!!!!!

Even without knowing much about this, they cannot be toads -- they're frogs.

Toads live on land. Frogs live in ponds.

[HEyHEY]

23. Look for a few 10 year olds and some firecrackers