Exploding toads baffle German experts

[Lance]

...Access to [the lake] has been sealed off and every night a biologist visits it between 2:00 and 3:00 am, which appears to be peak time for batrachians to go bang.

This (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1516&ncid=1516&e=2&u=/afp/20050423/od_afp/germanytoadsoffbeat_050423161657) has to be one of the most bizarre things I've read for a while.

Hmmm...

And the new pope is German. Maybe all the prophecies will come true.

[Gullible Jones]

Holy mole... That is weird.

I'm guessing the mechanism would be fungal colonies in the toads' intestines or something like that. Perhaps toads have a harder time venting unusual quantities of CO2 after a meal when they come down with such infections, and end up exploding? That's something of a stretch, though. (Ack... pardon the pun...)

The other hypothesis I have is that some jerk is experimenting with a home-made maser... Somebody with the skills could probably cobble something together that, aimed at a toad for long enough, would cause it to go splat. Confirming this hypothesis might require checking the temperature of the remains after the erruption. This one also seems unlikely though. Still, one wonders if they've seen multiple toads explode when separated by more than a foot or so...

(It is rather strange that the poor critters expand to 3.5 times their normal size... You wouldn't think that they'd be that stretchy.)

[Lance]

(It is rather strange that the poor critters expand to 3.5 times their normal size... You wouldn't think that they'd be that stretchy.)

And somehow, I'll bet the toads aren't all that happy that this is now a known value.

[Jpax2003]

Any chance they're munching on Alka Seltzer?

[The Supreme Canuck]

That could do it. I wonder if the pond is polluted with something that reacts with the toads' GI tract.

[Maksutov]

I wonder what Frog march (http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=5423&) thinks about this. :-k

[space cadet]

are you sure this isn't some kind of joke?

[The Supreme Canuck]

Seems to be fairly widely reported, but the text is always the same. So, uh, no.

[mickal555]

Could be a solution for our cane toad problem...

[kucharek]

I checked and cross-check some German sources and the story seems to be real.

[Gullible Jones]

Well, there are some things they ought to be checking...

1. Does this happen to frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians? Or is it limited to toads? What species of toads, if the latter?

2. Do captive toads, placed in cages by the lake with their own food and water, also explode? What about bullfrogs? Also, what of toads/frogs with their own food supply and lake water, or with their own water and local bugs for food?

3. Have toads been observed exploding in clusters, or do they prefer to go one at a time?

4. What's in the pond water? Has any sort of chemical analysis been done?

[Candy]

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.
I don't understand this part of the article.

[kucharek]

Well, there are some things they ought to be checking...

1. Does this happen to frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians? Or is it limited to toads? What species of toads, if the latter?

Only one species, Erdkröten (common toad)

2. Do captive toads, placed in cages by the lake with their own food and water, also explode? What about bullfrogs? Also, what of toads/frogs with their own food supply and lake water, or with their own water and local bugs for food?

It seems it happened only for a short time at the pond. After the event, nothing unusual happened to the other toads there.

3. Have toads been observed exploding in clusters, or do they prefer to go one at a time?

That's not clear from the reports.

4. What's in the pond water? Has any sort of chemical analysis been done?
Yes. It has been analysed chemically, bacteriologically and checked for viruses. Nothing found.

[kucharek]

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.
I don't understand this part of the article.

That's incomplete. One guy says, he observed crows who attacked the toads on land, picking their sides to pull out and eat their liver. That shock caused the toads to pump themselves up until they "exploded" at the weak point, where the crows had hacked. But observations and analysis of the toads didn't support this hypothesis very well.

[Moose]

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.
I don't understand this part of the article.

That's incomplete. One guy says, he observed crows who attacked the toads on land, picking their sides to pull out and eat their liver. That shock caused the toads to pump themselves up until they "exploded" at the weak point, where the crows had hacked. But observations and analysis of the toads didn't support this hypothesis very well.

Which, of course, is yet another nice argument against "intelligent design". Those frogs needed burst disks.

[Amadeus]

I think I have the answer.

They are evolving into draco vulgaris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp_dragon) :D

[Tuckerfan]

I think that they're part of an Al Qaida experiment to breed suicide bombers.

[Lance]

3. Have toads been observed exploding in clusters, or do they prefer to go one at a time?

It would be my guess that they would prefer to refrain from the behavior entirely.

[Lance]

I think that they're part of an Al Qaida experiment to breed suicide bombers.http://img23.echo.cx/img23/1382/rotflmao6qk.gif

[Messenger]

roflmao Arrggh! It's horrible, but it's funny! Poor toads.

[Amadeus]

3. Have toads been observed exploding in clusters, or do they prefer to go one at a time?

It would be my guess that they would prefer to refrain from the behavior entirely.

Has anyone actualy talked to the frogs? Maybe they're depressed about something.....

Could be tired of people licking their backs for example [-X

[cyswxman]

They're just "croaking" out there. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[beskeptical]

There is such a thing as ruminant bloat (http://ag.udel.edu/extension/information/af/af-07.htm) but this article says death is from chest organ compression rather than ruptured stomachs. Mythbusters tried to get a sheep's stomach to burst with bicarb and soda but there was so much elasticity in the stomach it never burst.

The story sounds like a conspiracy myth in the making. Anyone care to venture over to GLP and see if they have decided on ETs or CIA bioweapons yet as the cause? :wink:

[kucharek]

...Access to [the lake] has been sealed off and every night a biologist visits it between 2:00 and 3:00 am, which appears to be peak time for batrachians to go bang.

This is also a misquote/translation. Since the event (some reports say a thousand toads died within a few days), the biologist visits the place every night to check it, but until now, nothing unusual has happened again and the toads look healthy.

Some reports also said, that the toads just swallowed up a lot until their stomach came out of their mouth. Surely such a story would get another spin each time it is reported further.

Harald

[Lance]

I just couldn't help myself...

http://img255.echo.cx/img255/2412/poppingtoad1tl.gif

[Candy]

I just couldn't help myself...

http://img255.echo.cx/img255/2412/poppingtoad1tl.gif

I love it, Lance. =D>

[Gullible Jones]

Eww.

[Lance]

I love it, Lance. =D>

Thanks Candy.

I don't know what it is, and I truly feel sorry for the toads, but this story just has me ROTFLMBO.

Poor toads.

[Crazieman]

Whats really, really, really, really sad is I know where that pile of exploded goo comes from. Exactly.

When you liquefy zombies in the video game Doom with a rocket launcher.

Anyway, in the exploding toad realm, I was thinking more along the lines of Serious Sam 2: The Second Encounter. (Levels where hundreds of toads literally swarm you and explode)

[Charlie in Dayton]

...Perhaps toads have a harder time venting unusual quantities of CO2 ...


...I knew that a certain portion of a frog's anatomy was supposed to be watertight, but I hadn't heard that it had achieved a gas-tight seal... :-s :-k [-X 8-[

[Lance]

Whats really, really, really, really sad is I know where that pile of exploded goo comes from. Exactly.

When you liquefy zombies in the video game Doom with a rocket launcher.

Yup. That's exactly right.

They use this (http://img.lop.com/images/glp/images/smilies/doomsol.gif) as one of the smilies over at GLP (http://godlikeproductions.com/bbs/default.php). The frog I found elsewhere. A little photoshop magic and voila! An exploding toad.

[Lance]

Has anyone heard anything else on this story? I looked around but couldn't find anything besides the original.

[Gullible Jones]

Exploding toads now have a Wikipedia entry. The entry doesn't include anything new, really.

[Celestial Mechanic]

ANNOUNCER: Nine o'clock and time for the toad on your television set to explode.

Toad on top of television swells up and explodes.

MISS PREMISS: How did he know that was going to happen?

ANNOUNCER: It was an inspired guess.

[QuagmaPhage]

The exploding toads have also been reported in Denmark in the last days but I had not seen an article in english before today. You can find it here:

Scientists close in on cause for toad explosions (http://www.jp.dk/english_news/artikel:aid=3020732/)

The article gives several possible causes for the toad deaths but doesn't say much about the exploding toads near a lake in Låsby in the middle of Jutland. Instead the article focuses more on some shrivelling toads near Århus and som exploding toads in Sweden some years ago.

[Candy]

It happens between 2 and 3 a.m. The toads crawl out of their ponds to land and begin to bloat to absurd oversize, until their bodies explode, sending their innards up to a meter into the air.
http://home.att.net/~candy.stair/sick.gif

Those frogs, however, died in yet a third way. 'Their skin dissolved and the frogs bled to death,' said Briggs.
What in the world is going on? :o

[Jpax2003]

Macro-evolution.

[Candy]

Macro-evolution.
More like macro-ni after being cooked to long! Ewwwwwww.

[Jpax2003]

Actually the answer is simple: someone put nitroglycerin in the water. Hop, hop, bang!

[Gullible Jones]

The expanding eggs theory doesn't work - the toads do most of their bloating when crawling around on land...

[Jpax2003]

Ok, JPAXwired is reporting that it was the result of an old NAZI experiment in "frogmentation grenades."

I am going to wait for the gaming world to credit me with the invention of the new gaming term of "Frogging" for when someone blows himself up for no particular reason.

[sarongsong]

Overview (http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=900&category=Environment):
"...Cane toads were brought to Queensland from Venezuela, South America, in the 1930s to try to control beetles that were destroying sugar cane fields...have poisonous sacs on the back of their heads that can kill crocodiles...Australian Northern Territory government authorized a million dollars to research biotechnological remedies to the toad invasion. Maybe someone is testing one of the remedies in the German and Denmark waters?..."
Hawaii, under siege (http://starbulletin.com/2005/04/28/news/) by tiny, extremely vociferous Puerto Rican coqui frogs, has just received EPA approval to use hydrated lime against them.

[frogesque]

Another 'froggy' story! (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050429/325/fhnt9.html)

[Lance]

Another 'froggy' story! (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050429/325/fhnt9.html)

It's not easy being green...

[Lance]

Well, it looks like the mystery is solved (http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=636520).

After weeks of flummoxing scientists, Germany's great exploding toads mystery has been solved. They were gruesomely murdered by crows with a taste for foie gras.

http://img255.echo.cx/img255/2412/poppingtoad1tl.gif
I just love that graphic.

[Candy]

Darn crows! :evil:

I wonder what crow tastes like. :wink:

[Amadeus]

Stone the crows! :D

[Celestial Mechanic]

Darn crows! :evil:

I wonder what crow tastes like. :wink:
Like spotted owl? :)
[Ducks and runs for cover!]

[sidmel]

I just couldn't help myself...

http://img255.echo.cx/img255/2412/poppingtoad1tl.gif

Ugh, I think I'm turning green....

[Gullible Jones]

Interesting. Crows are, in some ways, very much like humans... Namely, their ideas tend to be clever but cruel.

[Maksutov]

Darn crows! :evil:

I wonder what crow tastes like. :wink:
Easy to find out. Just say something that you have to take back. (http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/eatcrow.htm) :D

[Candy]

Darn crows! :evil:

I wonder what crow tastes like. :wink:
Easy to find out. Just say something that you have to take back. (http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/eatcrow.htm) :D
I know that taste, Mak. :wink: