SCI/TECH: Mystery of 1,000 Exploding Toads

All kidding aside, this doesn't sound like a virus. Almost all viruses preserve the host for breeding purposes. Sounds more like some pathogen in the water.

Originally posted by Hellmutt
This "disease" or whatever it is, is apparently spreading. Even spreading to other countries. Alarm...

Another poster mentioned it was happening in Belgium also - so Germany, Denmark & Belgium... maybe worldwide soon. What could be triggering it at the same time each day? The temperature maybe? It's the coldest part of the night isn't it? Do toads do something to raise their body temps and could that be what's screwed up?

Maybe we could knit them little jumpers?

Originally posted by Astronomer68
All kidding aside, this doesn't sound like a virus. Almost all viruses preserve the host for breeding purposes. Sounds more like some pathogen in the water.

Except for... A L I E N ... viruses!

Just kidding. Don't some viruses do this kind of thing to reproduce? I thought Ebola ends with explosive bleed outs to spread the virus all around the host?

Question.. is a dead toad croaked or uncroaked?

Who hangs around ponds at 2 - 3 o'clock in the morning to watch a toad explode...??? Brings to mind - get a life...

Seriously, if they find out what causes them to explode perhaps they can export it downunder so that we can rid of tthe housands of cane toads that were imported into this country and are now out of control...they kill off wild life and are a spreading across the country at an alarming rate..

Explanation for 'exploding toads'

Toads have been exploding by the hundred in Germany because they are being attacked by crows, a veterinary surgeon said.

Animal welfare workers and veterinarians had reported that as many as 1,000 toads had swelled to bursting point and exploded in recent days, propelling their entrails up to a metre into the air.
Now a veterinary surgeon, Frank Mutschmann, who has examined the remains of the toads, said they had been pierced with a single peck by crows trying to eat their livers.

This in turn caused the toads to explode.

Link

Sanc'.

"The toads swell up as a form of self-defence. But when their livers are taken away and their stomachs are punctured, their blood vessels explode, their lungs collapse and the other organs come out," Mutschmann said.

I'm no biologist but tHis doesn't seem to make an ounce of sense.

Originally posted by wecomeinpeace
I'm no biologist but tHis doesn't seem to make an ounce of sense.

Neither am i. But imagine this from the crows point of view...you whip down to the pond for a bite
and the target explodes in your face.

Sanc'.

It's only a matter of time before some unscrupulous kid dies while licking a toad and then it explodes.... It's a ticking time bomb I tell ya!

"You're not going to explode or something, are you?"


.

Have you seen the movie Magnolia?

Well, if you have then you know about the Raining Frogs.

Imagine now that the toads start falling from the sky, and the blow up.

Sound even scarier!

Originally posted by wecomeinpeace
I'm no biologist but tHis doesn't seem to make an ounce of sense.

I agree. Of all the possible explanations this is the least plausible, although most other theories have been disproved, even the South American race horse fungus.

Crows and toads have been around a long time, so it really doesn't follow that this is a new phenomenon, but who am I to question the experts.

[edit on 05/4/28 by GradyPhilpott]

I'm pretty suprised myself. I strongly doubt that crows have anything to due with this, as Grady said, toads and crows have been around for a long time. I doubt it's a mutagen, however I'm thinking a virus is definatly possible. As somebody said Ebola works a similar way, perhaps it's a new toad aflicting virus. I need to find a video on this.

According to this article the crow explanation is merely speculation. Maybe it is the correct answer, but it has not yet been confirmed. The article also mentions the locations reported by Hellmutt.

Well, yes, crows and toads have been around a long time. However, crows have just recently entered the area where this explosive phenomenon is taking place, which led some people to think it was an adapted behavior on the part of the toads.

Doesn't make a lot of sense, but saying toads and crows have co-existed doesn't really counter the hypothesis, because they haven't been living together in that area for long.

Anyway, my bet is still on diet or pollution in the water, rather than a defensive mechanism.

Frogs are weird though.

My wife once (back when a kid) had these palmetto bushes outside the house. Now, for those who don't know about these, they are basically very spiky plants.

Anyhow, she and her dad would often find almost a dozen frogs impaled on the spikes in the morning.... ???? They got to calling them "suicidal frogs", until early one morning, they actually SAW what was going on. Birds were picking up the frogs, then dropping them to be impaled on the spikes!!! Then they'd let them dry out a bit, and eat them at leisure...

Maybe something similar is going on there, who knows???

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
According to this article the crow explanation is merely speculation. Maybe it is the correct answer, but it has not yet been confirmed. The article also mentions the locations reported by Hellmutt.

I saw a newsreport from Denmark. They say that on one occasion they found 50 exploded toads, all "sitting on the same stone". This stone was about 1x1 meter big. Also there have been people who got sprayed with guts by the exploded toads. These witnesses didn´t see or report any crows either. I guess this make the crow explaination more unlikely...