On Mon, 8 Mar 2010 22:16:25 -0800 (PST), LecresiaBoiler 4 <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...ed-489894.html
>
>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.
>
>Health officials in Hamburg started to panic after some 1,000 toads
>puffed up and exploded last month, their entrails splattering an area
>of up to a square metre. The tabloid press went into overdrive,
>dubbing the carnage site in Hamburg's Altona district the "Pond of
>Death" and warning children and dogs to stay away. Theories ran wild
>that toads were committing suicide or were croaking because of a virus
>spread by South American race horses. But now one of Germany's top
>experts on amphibians says he's cracked the case. Frank Mutschmann,
>who examined both dead and living Hamburg specimens at his Berlin
>research centre, found all had identical circular incisions on their
>backs, small enough to be the work of a bird's beak. Then he found
>something strange: their livers were missing. "There were no bite or
>scratch marks, so we knew the toads weren't being attacked by a
>raccoon or rat, which would have also eaten the entire toad," he said.
>"It was clearly the work of crows, which are clever enough to know the
>toad's skin is toxic and realise the liver is the only part worth
>eating.
>
>"Only once the liver is gone does the toad realise it's been attacked.
>It puffs itself up as a natural defence mechanism. But since it
>doesn't have a diaphragm or ribs, without the liver there is nothing
>to hold the rest of its organs in. The lungs stretch out of all
>proportion and rip; the rest of the organs simply expel themselves."
>
>The toads' grisly deaths are, in fact, a well-documented phenomenon.
>First recorded in Germany in 1968, exploding toads have been reported
>in the country, as well as in Belgium, Denmark and America. Hamburg's
>toads started to explode during their week-long mating season. Dr
>Mutschmann believes the crows went in for the kill when the toads were
>too busy enjoying the heights of sexual excitement. "They would have
>noticed something as the crow pecked at them, but it wouldn't have
>been particularly painful," he said.
>
>The riddle solved, the question now is whether to exact revenge on the
>crows. Toads, much-loved in Germany, are a protected species. But so
>are crows. "I've had several angry emails," said Dr Mutschmann. "But
>there's no reason to worry. It's just a part of nature."
Good news. My kittens will be pleased with this.
--
Rob Cypher
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