Birds May Be Behind Exploding German Toads

[emad]

Birds May Be Behind Exploding German Toads By MATT SURMAN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Apr 28, 2:47 PM ET



BERLIN - Why are toads puffing up and spontaneously exploding in northern Europe? It began in a posh German neighborhood and has spread across the border into Denmark. It's left onlookers baffled, but one German scientist studying the splattered amphibian remains now has a theory: Hungry crows may be pecking out their livers.

"The crows are clever," said Frank Mutschmann, a Berlin veterinarian who collected and tested specimens at the Hamburg pond. "They learn quickly from watching other crows how to get the livers."

So far, more than 1,000 toad corpses have been found at a pond in Hamburg and in Denmark. But the pond water in Hamburg has been tested, and its quality is no better or worse than elsewhere in the city. The remains have been checked for a virus or bacteria, but none has been found.

Based on the wounds, Mutschmann said, it appears that a bird pecks into the toad with its beak between the amphibian's chest and abdominal cavity, and the toad puffs itself up as a natural defense mechanism.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=2&u=/ap/20050428/ap_on_sc/germany_exploding_toads

[DS1]

1. lurvely

:puke:

[flvegan]

2. This wouldn't be happening if folks let their cats roam freely.

They'd teach those pesky crows!

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

3. fascinating.

and bizarre.

[peekaloo]

4. sounds like a Monty Python sketch.

[emad]

5. "flatulence may be behinds of exploding toads"

??

[Kellanved]

6. amazing - it took the English press only one week...

to translate the rest of the article.

Considering that the "crow" explanation was part of the German original (from April 21st) , the whole "toad thing" was an - I have to say it again - amazing display of selective quoting.

[Ian David]

7. So, nobody has actually sat there and watched a toad swell-up and explode?

Damn, this might be lame.

[Ian David]

8. Nature: Has bubble burst over exploding toad tale?

"I really think someone needs to go back and check the primary source."
-- Barry Clarke
Natural History Museum, London

Evidence points to bloated toads and hungry birds, but not explosions.

A mystery of exploding toads has turned many people into armchair zoologists this week. Amphibians in a previously obscure German pond have reportedly been blowing up in their thousands, leaving a grisly trail of innards stretching several feet in their wake - and observers desperately trying to work out why.

The bizarre phenomenon has prompted a full-scale environmental investigation of the pond by researchers at the nearby Institute for Hygiene and Environment in Hamburg. The list of suspected culprits has grown to include bacteria, fungi, ozone and vehicle exhausts; or simply the pecking of hungry birds.

<snip>

There are some symptoms that might lead an observer to think that a toad was on the verge of blowing up, Himmelreich adds, particularly if a wounded toad wandered into a pond. "Maybe they were full of water, and in their agony they were also trying to suck in air," Himmelreich says. People watching bloated, rasping toads might well think an explosion was imminent, she says.

<snip>

"I really think someone needs to go back and check the primary source," comments Barry Clarke, a herpetologist at the Natural History Museum in London. "I've learnt never to say with animals that anything is impossible. But the idea of exploding toads - well let's face it, it's pythonesque."

More:
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050425/full/050425-13.html

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