Mystery of the exploding toads - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

TwitchKitty · #1 04-25-2005, 03:02 PM

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1370116.html?menu=news.quirkies

Quote:

Visitors to Hamburg parks are being warned to watch out for exploding toads.

Several thousand toads in the city's parks have so far mysteriously spontaneously exploded, sending entrails and toad body parts over a wide area.

Vets and animal welfare workers said the mystery has decimated the city's toad population as well as the unpleasant problem of leaving toad parts scattered around parks and open spaces.

Eyewitnesses say the toads swell up to three and a half times their normal size before suddenly exploding - sending entrails flying metres into the air.

Nature protection worker Werner Smolnik from Hamburg said over the last four days at least a thousand toads had died in this manner in scenes reminiscent of a science fiction film.

He said: "It is a complete mystery, we have a lot of ideas which we are following up, but at the moment we haven't the faintest idea if any of them are correct.

Flash Gordon · #2 04-25-2005, 04:00 PM

I have heard whales and dolphins beach themselves to death, but I have never heard of toads kill themselves this way. Strange occurance!

boneheaddoctor · #3 04-25-2005, 04:01 PM

Toads can't fart.........they ate too much sauerkraut and beer. Result is Boom......been telling my wife for years that would happen if I puckered the sphincter long enough.

diametricalbenz · #4 04-25-2005, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flash Gordon

I have heard whales and dolphins beach themselves to death, but I have never heard of toads kill themselves this way. Strange occurance!

Whales and dolphins beach themselves for a lot of reasons. They get lost, disoriented, attacked, disease, etc.

I think someone is probably leaving a lot of antacid tablets on the grass and the frogs are eating them

cmac2012 · #5 04-25-2005, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boneheaddoctor

Toads can't fart.........they ate too much sauerkraut and beer. Result is Boom......been telling my wife for years that would happen if I puckered the sphincter long enough.

Keep trying, you'll pull it off...

cmac2012 · #6 04-25-2005, 05:15 PM

This reminds me of a condition I've read about but not seen. Small tornado waterspouts, or maybe big ones I'm not sure, can occaionally suck frogs out of ponds along with gallons and gallons of water and deposit them miles away:

"Look Muriel, it's raining frogs!"

Supposedly a true story.

Carleton Hughes · #7 04-25-2005, 06:31 PM

If these gastrically challenged hoppers have indeed been bursting regularly why are there no images of them? not even any post explosion pics showing the scattered entrails?

Another hoax,like the rhesus monkeys who supposedly administered enemas to themselves.

MTI · #8 04-25-2005, 06:48 PM

damn al-Qaeda!

Botnst · #9 04-25-2005, 07:34 PM

A phenomenon toadily de nova.

I detect the nefarious, ever-present hands of the Catholic Church and Halliburton. Somewhere, somehow there's a stained blue dress behind it all.

Bot
From the Bunker in Area 51

Carleton Hughes · #10 04-25-2005, 08:40 PM

Nahhhh,no Opus Dei connection there.

It's either agents of The Old Man Of The Mountain or Prester John.

djugurba · #11 04-25-2005, 09:41 PM

is there a missing carton of alka-seltzer in the vicinity? I've heard of them being employed to kill seagulls. or is that an urban ledgend?

GermanStar · #12 04-25-2005, 09:51 PM

Great name for a rock band, isn't it?

"MikeMover and the Exploding Toads".

TwitchKitty · #13 04-25-2005, 10:23 PM

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1563663,00.html

Another toad bites the dust

Quote:

The residents of Hamburg have been told to avoid one of the city's lakes after a spate of mysterious explosions in the area. It seems the lake's toads have been violently and spontaneously combusting.

Modern day soothsayers in Germany have been stumped by a strange phenomenon afflicting the amphibian community of the northern city of Hamburg of late.

While toads falling from the sky is a well-documented, although widely contested, natural phenomena which some believe preludes some kind of natural disaster, there seems to be no such explanation for the spate of exploding toads the city is experiencing.

pxland · #14 04-26-2005, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTI

damn al-Qaeda!

I can just see the little explosive vests.

Paul X.

If a frog had wings it wouldn't bump it's ass when it hopped.

TwitchKitty · #15 04-27-2005, 08:50 PM

Hit the mainstream media in the US today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/27/AR2005042700482.html

Quote:

Exploding Toads Puzzle German Scientists

The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 27, 2005; 5:55 PM

BERLIN -- 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.

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