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Exploding Toads

Posted by Zonk on from the end-times-are-here-repent! dept.

Badly Configured writes "The city of Hamburg in Germany is plagued by exploding amphibians (The Times, BBC, press release from the city, in German). People are warned not to go near the unstable animals for the fear of being hit. Experts have tested the toads for bacteria and chemicals, yet the reason for the animals going off remains a mystery..." From the article: "The toads' entrails are propelled for up to a metre (3.2ft), in scenes that have been likened to science fiction. Scientists are baffled. Possible explanations include a unknown virus or a fungus in the pond. "

4 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Bah! by CommanderData · · Score: 4, Funny

    Exploding Toads? Back in my day we had Exploding Whales. Well OK, it was only one whale, and they used a half-ton of dynamite, but it was still very impressive!

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  2. Now to blame this on global warming by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Funny

    or as the hip kids say these days "climate change". Either that or we have to go find a relevant passage in the bible (preferably the book of revelations) or some random drawl that nostradamus pumped out.

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  3. Toads / frogs can't burp. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I remember a long time ago seeing a rather disgusting documentary about regular plague-level swarms of animals, including frogs. At the breeding time of the year, they would swarm over the roads and part of a town in their urge to find spawning grounds. And then there was this guy who was paid to run over frogs in his car to try and reduce the number of frogs that invaded the town. Anyway, that's irrelevent background information.

    The point that I remember that's appropriate: frogs can't burp. So they would explode if this guy ran them over from the back-first (rather then head-first, where their guts were squeezed out of their backside). So what's probably happening here is:

    (1) The toads eat something nasty.
    (2) The nasty thing releases *a lot* of gas as it's digested.
    (3) The toad can't burp - and for some reason can't fart either - so it swells up and eventually explodes.

    Anyway, that's my best guess based on the information in those articles: something foreign (but not necessarily toxic) has got into their food supply.

  4. Documentary by fishmasta · · Score: 4, Informative

    You're probably refering to the Austrailian documentary Cane Toads.

    http://imdb.com/title/tt0130529/