Mystery Disease causes German toads to explode
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Mystery Disease causes German toads to explode*
The toads of Altona are dying in their thousands
[BBC] - Toads in an area of northern Germany are being killed off by a
mysterious disease - they are exploding.
Thousands of the amphibians have died in recent days in a pond in
Hamburg's Altona district, with their bodies swelling to bursting point.
The toads' entrails are propelled for up to a metre (3.2ft), in scenes
that have been likened to science fiction.
Scientists are baffled. Possible explanations include a unknown virus or
a fungus in the pond.
"You see the animals crawling on the ground, swelling and then
exploding," German conservationist Werner Smolnik told AFP news agency.
The bodies of the toads expanded to three and a half times their normal
size, he said.
"I have never seen such a thing," AFP quotes veterinarian Otto Horst as
saying. The site - which has been dubbed "the pond of death" - has been
closed to the public.
The exploding toads have also crossed the border north into Denmark,
according to Danish Radio.
It reported that a large number of toads that live in a pond near Laasby
in central Jutland have started to suffer the same fate as the German
amphibians.
The toads crawl onto the land, swell up and explode in the middle of the
night, the radio said.