April 24, 2005

• "pond of death"... ok, gotta love that.. at what's with the photo of the frogs doin' it in the road....?
• "at" = "and"
• Beatles fans.
• Beneath his warty hide each simple German toad, who sees at last a Nazi Pope, now swells with patriotic pride. yes, this is how I celebrate Anzac Day
• Bees.... you nailed it...nothing left to say here!
• what's with the photo of the frogs doin' it in the road....? It's a file photo; it was probably the only one they had that didn't have some obviously American background (note the blurry car).
• This is just phase 1 in my plan to conquer the world.
• Oh. I'm sorry to say I actually think I know what is going on here. Frogs and toads have semi-permeable skin. What could be happening is that a substance in their current environment is causing their kidneys to shut down. When that happens, their bodies are filled with salt that can't be gotten rid of, much like a human with kidney failure. When they jump in water, the salinity is equalized...by putting more and more water into their body. Eventually, this causes frogs to asplode. You may ask how I know this. Answer: childhood pet, childhood trauma. R.I.P., Mr. Frog.
• His organs were sent shooting a metre across the room?
• I only ask because, you know, this is a fairly unique pathalogical detail sans the intervention of the cherry bomb. Dig.
• That's awful...eek.
• +1 articulate & intelligent
• Ha! Beeswacky, that really got what promised to be a depressing day into high gear. Thanks!
• What musing said makes sense, but it makes me wonder. Have the involved scientists considered the kidney malfunction angle as well? It seems like an almost obvious answer the way musing explains it.
• I'm pretty sure that basic kidney malfunction causing catastrophic body explosion would be noted somewhere in veterinarian textbooks. :D Fairly spectacular.
• [lightbulb goes on] Why, in a perfect world frogs would have kidney dialysis, too!
• Another old nazi secret weapon experiment has been found. Perfect for a James Bond movie script.
• Dude, I'd be in sooo much trouble if I had pet explode. I'd be like "no Mom, it was his kidneys! Too much salt!" and then she'd punch me in the kidneys, and then I'd probably explode.
• Toads are considered an environmental watch-species. The canary in the coalmine, so to speak. Don't know about frogs, though.
• While not knowing the effects of salinity on frogs, I do know from experience that when conducting a test to demonstrate "cold-bloodiness" of frogs, do not place frogs directly from the hot-water bath to the cold-water bath. Make use of the intermediary warm-water bath, otherwise you will end up with a frog demonsrating the effects of sudden shock [which is not also usually instantanously fatal for the frog, but also contracts all those poor little frog muscles - giving quite a stiff frog] And from observation [for some macabre reason, this was quite a favorite pastime of bored high school students in NC], do not feed alka-selter tablets to animals. This has quite a dramatic and explosive-effect on sea gulls who happily injested the curious white tablets...
• Frogs are environmental watchdogs too; I made a post on it previously. At least, Australia thinks so. If you want to know more about Cane Toads in particular, I would encourage you all to watch Cane Toads - An Unnatural History. Probably the weirdest thing you've ever seen. Lots of toads getting it on, too, even in the road - but you might not want to watch that part, as the male toad is randy, but the female toad is, well, previously smushed and killed by a car.
• I wish cane toads would all suddenly develop kidney failure. They're a plague over this way.
• A horror movie script came to me in a flash after reading this. It's something in the water - scientists studying it get splashed during the explosions, and it's absorbed through their skin. A few hours later: scientific explosion! Our heroes must figure out the answer, avoid getting splashed, plus all the usual horror movie tropes. I think it's gotta be a hoax.
• Wolof, thpought I read everyone is to arm himself with golf club or cricket bat and start whaling away at the poisonous wee beasts. Or is this some fable spread by the enemies of Oz?
• Toads are considered an environmental watch-species. The canary in the coalmine, so to speak. That is what I was thinking. I don't wanna explode!
• Spontaneous combustion could work, tho.
• No, no, whale away!
• Maybe they're angry. I splode when I'm angry.
• I think it's gotta be a hoax. The first thing I did was check snopes, but it checks out. If toads have permeable skin, can you make them change colors by putting them into colored water, assuming the coloring was non-toxic to toads?
• Oh, that's how the scientists can figure out what's going on! They can dye the whole pond purple, and then see if the inflated about-to-asplode frogs are purple. I win the nobel prize in the field of amphibians!
• And now, the exploding toad slideshow.
• Organs, spurting.
• Update from AP: it could be crows at fault
• Ach! Now I, beeswacky, must speak in defense of the oft-maligned crow! I'm thinking this speculation about the crow will prove to be unfounded. Why? For one thing, toads release noxious fumes and/or substances which can distress or offend would-be predators. It's interesting to watch a dog pick up a toad in uts mouth. The dog usually puts it down in a quick way -- then wipes its doggy muzzle on the grass, starts sneezing violently, shaking its head, salivating copiously or showing similar indications of doggy distress. [Often that is the last time that particular dog will bother a toad.] Secondly, birds are sensitive, far more so than mammals, to even small amounts of noxious fumes -- so I doubt pecking toads is ever going to catch on with bird-kind, whether crow or kingfisher. Furthermore, if toads were being pecked open in such a way as to enable the extraction of their livers, you would think a sizeable hole in the toad would result. A hole of sufficient size that some keen-eyed observer would have noticed an injury prior to the toad's demise. But there seem to be no reports of this -- and only this guy's unsubstantiated speculation that crows are responsible for the toad explosions. Ye know, if a bird must be found to be the culprit here, why not look first at the herons? At least herons are known to eat frogs if not toads. But I doubt it is herons, either. Nor owls. Nor pink hiccupping flamingoes.
• It's clearly not the crows, since it would have been seen before. Also, it's happening in Norway too, I'll find the link to that story later.
• Crows are omnivorous, yes. And very intelligent. But this phenomenon of exploding toads is spreading so fast it is (once again) unlikely to be birds. In the past when a new bird behaviour has come under observation, such as the blue tit-and-milbottle-cap behaviour, the spread over a geograohic area hasn't been so rapid. Seems more sensible to look at causes other than birds to account for exploding toads and the large area in which the phenomenon is being reported.
• The, uh, whole thing you mentioned before about them being osmotic or something. Some illness make the poor thing swell up? Livers? I don't know, my memory's gone phucnuphd.
• We don't have nearly enough facts here -- so don't worry about your memory yet, mate. O dear gods, wot if the same Unknown Cause which makes toads explode, also affects the memory in monkeys?! Eek!
• Toad as Victim Horticulture ended Sid fast asleep, suddenly hoed; paint tins left without a lid Uncle Jim was white-stucco'd; Marcus ended life at sea stevedores too tightly stowed; Gracie died in suburbs green found herself dethatched and mowed; ballroom dance offed smooth Eugene warty hide got stilettoed; t'other side lured wayward June tenderized upon the road; toad-canary Simon's tune stilled by falling motherlode; diced by a propeller blade Auntie Lil was Limpopo'd; Boys made s'mores from Adelaide roasted first, then marshmallow'd; chic Gaston's long legs were shorn all the rest served a la mode; Bubbles, forced to work in porn, suffocated, camel toed; human waste poisoned Celeste trapped beneath upset commode; poisoned planet snuffs the rest toad by toad they all asplode.
• beautiful, fish tick! )))! The Exploding Toad should be an Edward Gorey story.
• Hah! You caught the Gashlycrumbosity.
• Brava and ))) for fixh tick!!! The concluding line sums it up so beautifully!
• =fish Sorry.
• I don't know. I like the crow theory, as far fetched as it may seem. I think I have a soft spot for smart evil critters.
• Well, Zemat, I could be wrong -- there just don't seem many facts to go on as yet. These days the crow family stand at considerable hazard thanks to avian flu and their own omnivorous habits. Would hate to see ravens, crows, bluejays and so on disappear from the North American landscape. For in addition to being fascinating in their own right, they're invaluable to other birds, to the avian community at large, being great callers-out of danger, and always willing to mob a stray owl or spot and harry a hunting hawk.
• No, no, no. Don't try to make them look good or they will go down in my evil critter's evilness scale (tm). Just below cats and chimpanzees. A little bit seriously. I don't necessarily think that crows making frogs a'splode is a bad thing. I could turn out to be some sort of population control. On the other hand, species are always competing, not to "survive", but to take over the land the inhabit. The way nature works is like an arms race. And the only reason it seems to be in equilibrium is because ecological niches often reach a kind of "cold war" state after several generational iterations. But, like the real cold war, these equilibriums are quite fragile. Any kind of change, a mutation, climatic change or whatever *cough*humans*cough*, that greatly favours a species over the others brings the ecological equilibrium to chaos until a new equilibrium is reach. Often after the demise of several unadapted species. Of course, humans have been good at disrupting these equilibriums everywhere they set foot in a very messy way, to the point they endanger their own existence. Ranting aside, if crows are found to be the scourge of frogs over Europe I think we should let'em be an see what kind of new equilibrium nature reachs there without us trying up to "rig" the game one way or the other. Even if latter we find out humans are responsible because some german dude in a crow suit actually taught crows how detonate frogs.
• If I were a betting man, Zemat, I'd put my money on humans being at the root of toad-explosions. But, it's an ill wind blows no one good, folk used to say. Regardless of cause, the Australians ought to be eying these exploding toads with immense curiosity -- the cane toad in Oz is a serious pest. Matters have reached a point where Aussie politicians are advizing citizens to indulge in smack-and-whack expeditions in order to rid the land of have these pestiferous and poisonous critters. HOw long till cane toads start exploding?
• Theories abound, but German conservationists struggle to find a convincing explanation for amphibian armageddon.
• From Chyren's link: Should the bird theory prove true, it will doubtless heighten Hamburg residents' anxieties about the feathered creatures. Two years ago, the city's crows gained notoriety after they mysteriously attacked joggers, Hitchcock-style, in a Hamburg park without warning. I told ya these birdies were up to no good.