Germans complain of exploding toads.

[theweaselking]

Hundreds of toads have met a bizarre and sinister end in Germany in recent days, it was reported: they exploded.

According to reports from animal welfare workers and veterinarians as many as a thousand of the amphibians have perished after their bodies swelled to bursting point and their entrails were propelled for up to a metre. It is like "a science fiction film", according to Werner Smolnik of a nature protection society in the northern city of Hamburg, where the phenomenon of the exploding toad has been observed.

"You see the animals crawling on the ground, swelling and then exploding."

He said the bodies of the toads expanded to three and a half times their normal size. "I have never seen such a thing," said veterinarian Otto Horst. So bad has the death toll been that the lake in the Altona district of Hamburg has been dubbed "the pond of death."

Access to it has been sealed off


Gratuitous toad sex

Comments

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm looking forward to seeing some kind of follow-up.

And, I'm skeptical of the claim that the toads are exploding from "fear" of crows.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

In their defense, they say the crows can kill the toads through fear, not that fear is making them expode - and, it's worth noting, ther aren't *sure* the toads are exploding. That's just the current story.

Another theory, advanced elsewhere, is that they're eating something that's giving them terrible gas when it reacts with their stomach acids.

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

See, that explanation would seem quite reasonable.