AFPSunday, April 24, 2005
Hundreds of toads have met an unexplained, explosive demise in Germany in
recent days, it was reported on Saturday.
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.
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 and every night a biologist visits it
between 2:00am and 3:00am, which appears to be peak time for batrachians to go
bang.
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.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1352292.htm
Welcome Note...
Yearly Archive
Printer Version