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Title: Thousands of Amphibians Exploding In Germany, Experts Baffled
Source:
Yahoo! News
URL Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm ... afp/20050423/od_afp/germanytoa
Published: Apr 25, 2005
Author: AFP
Post Date: 2005-04-25 21:09:21 by robin
Keywords: Amphibians, Thousands, Exploding
Views: 163
Comments: 13
BERLIN (AFP) - 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 (three feet). 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 and every night a biologist visits it between 2:00 and 3:00 am, 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.
On a busy German road, a female toad makes haste, with her male partner clinging on, as a speeding car approaches. Hundreds of toads have met a bizarre and sinister end in Germany in recent days, it was reported: they exploded.(AFP/DPA/File/Markus Farhrer)
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#1. To: robin (#0)
Hmm maybe someone is playing Slim Whitman music?
Just wait until it starts happening to people.
Crows hunting frogs at 2 a.m.?
Ping to the Slim Whitman link.. (paybacks :P )
Don't encourage Dak into any competition this evening. His last post needing a WARNING label!
Uh yeah.. he's feeling his 'oats' I guess this evening :P
Do you think I'm Badeye?
The atmospheric envelope has been pierced one to many times by mans arrogant spacecraft and the atmosphere is leaking out to space. The toads are "canaries in the coal mine" due to their slightly higher internal pressure and inability to equalize because they are wet and not porous. Feeling like it's a bit hard to get a full breath yet??? ;-)
I stopped breathing about halfway thru that piece. This dang sinus condition...
PI Announces U.S. Big Brother Awards winners for 2005 Finally, the Lifetime Menace Award was issued to Choicepoint. Choicepoint has been an abuser and broker of personal information for many years now, collecting information on Americans and foreigners without having to adhere to strict privacy laws. Recently it has admitted that there have been a number of fraudulent uses and loss of this personal information. This resulted in mass apologies, apologies to Congress, and a CEO bonus of 1.8 million dollars.
#2. To: robin (#0)
#3. To: robin (#0)
or crows
#4. To: Dakmar (#1)
#5. To: Zipporah (#4)
#6. To: robin, Dakmar (#5)
Don't encourage Dak into any competition this evening. His last post needing a WARNING label!
#7. To: robin, Continental Op (#5)
#8. To: Don (#2)
#9. To: Dakmar (#7)
#10. To: robin (#9)
#11. To: Axenolith (#8)
#12. To: Dakmar (#7)
#13. To: Dakmar (#10)
Each year, the national members and affiliated organizations of Privacy International present the "Big Brother" awards to the government and private sector organisations which have done the most to threaten personal privacy in their countries. Since 1998, over forty ceremonies have been held in sixteen countries and have given out hundreds of awards to some of the most powerful government agencies, individuals and corporations in those countries.
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