Reptile & Amphibian Forums

THE TIMES (London, UK) 26 April 05 Mystery of toads that explode in the night (Roger Boyes)
Berlin: An outbreak of exploding toads is perplexing the residents of Hamburg. The affected creatures seem to behave quite normally, croaking and languidly snapping up flies. Suddenly, after nightfall, they start to balloon to more than three times their normal size and can barely crawl before popping. Their entrails are expelled distances of up to one metre.
Thousands of the green amphibians have died this way. “It is a deeply shocking sight,” said Werner Smolnik, a leading activist from the Nabu environmental protection group.
A meeting of wildlife experts has been summoned to explain the phenomenon, which has occurred near a lake in a fashionable part of the city. Tabloid newspapers have already called it the “Pond of Death.”
Dogs and children have been warned away. The force of the explosions is impressive. “It’s like hitting a slightly rotten orange with a golf iron,” one Green activist explained yesterday.
Heidi Mayerhofer, a biologist who has been called in to find an answer to the riddle, said: “The worst thing is that they’re not dead immediately. They have to fight for their lives for minutes on end despite the fact that their entrails have been shot across the park.”
The experts’ main concern is that the illness could spread. “We cannot exclude some possibility of humans being infected,” Herr Smolnik said. Water samples from the lake have been taken for analysis but no obvious bacteria or deadly pollution seems to be present in the water.
Other explanations are a virus or a new breed of aggressive crows. The birds have been seen attacking toads and one theory is that the toads swell up as a defence mechanism which then gets out of control. Alternatively, the toads could be committing suicide in order to protect the toad community as a whole. Attacks by crows have certainly diminished since the toads started to blow themselves up.
Germans are particularly attached to toads and they have become, in some respects, a symbol of the Green movement. The Government has allocated £153,000 for toad tunnels underneath roads to protect the animals from traffic.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1585379,00.html

COPENHAGEN POST (Denmark) 27 April 05 Bursting toads baffle scientists
Thousands of toads are exploding in central Denmark and northern Germany. Environmental factors or an unknown disease may cause the phenomenon
Biblical plague, extraterrestrial bacteria, or climate changes? Thousands of toads are exploding across northern Germany and central Denmark, baffled animal experts report.
Hundreds of toads have begun to explode near a lake in the town of Låsby in Mid-Jutland. According to reports, the toads climb on to land, swell to up to three times their normal size, and burst, casting their innards up to one metre in the air. A similar phenomenon has also been reported in the German city of Hamburg, where authorities report that over 1000 toads are dead.
Experts are at a loss to explain what is causing the toads' painful deaths, which primarily take place between two and three a.m.
'It's like a science fiction film,' said Werner Smolnik, a representative for a Hamburg animal welfare organisation. 'You can see the animals crawling around on the ground, then they swell up, and finally they burst.'
Frank Jensen, curator of Denmark's Museum of Natural History, said to Denmark's TV2 that the mysterious deaths likely had an earthly explanation, namely toxins found in fertilisers or changes in the ozone layer.
The Danish Meteorological Institute warned yesterday of increased ozone radiation reaching Denmark. Amphibians such as toads and frogs are known to be sensitive to slight environmental changes.
While German authorities surmise that the gruesome deaths are caused by bacterial or viral infection, they were still confounded by the incident.
'I have never seen anything like this,' said veterinarian Otto Holst.
http://www.cphpost.dk/get/87499.html

= = = = =
DIE TAGESZEITUNG (Berlin, Germany) 26 April 05 Kröten angepiekst (Gernot Knödler)
Experte vermutet, dass explodierte Erdkröten in Hamburg Vögeln zum Opfer fielen. Aufgepickte Haut zerreißt, wenn sich die Tiere aufpumpen. Bisher einzige Erklärung
Die geplatzten Erdkröten in der Altonaer Stadionstraße sind nach Überzeugung des Berliner Amphibienexperten Frank Mutschmann Raubvögeln zum Opfer gefallen. Bakterien und Pilze, die als Ursache für das Aufblähen der Tiere in Frage gekommen wären, konnten weder er noch die Wissenschaftler vom Hamburger Hygiene-Institut in der Marckmannstraße finden. Iridoviren, wie sie der aus Nordamerika eingewanderte Ochsenfrosch in sich trägt, schloss Mutschmann als Ursache aus. Diese verursachten ein anderes Krankheitsbild.
Verschiedene Zeugen, auch Wissenschaftler des Hygiene-Instituts, hatten beobachtet, wie sich die Tiere innerhalb von etwa zehn Minuten aufblähten und regelrecht explodierten (taz berichtete). An dem Rückhaltebecken in der Stadionstraße wurden Hunderte geplatzter Kröten eingesammelt. Ähnliche Fälle werden aus dem Kreis Stormarn und aus Kiel berichtet, sind aber nicht aktenkundig geworden.
Das Hygiene-Institut hatte Mutschmann zwei Tiere zur Untersuchung geschickt. Die Kröten seien hinter dem Schultergürtel geöffnet gewesen, wobei die Leber fehlte. Mutschmann vermutet, dass die Kröten bei ihrer langsamen nächtlichen Wanderung von Vögeln angepickt worden seien. Dass diese nur die Leber naschten und die Kröten weitermarschierten, sei dabei nichts Ungewöhnliches.
Wenn die Amphibien nun aufgeregt seien oder als Männchen Weibchen anlocken wollten, so pumpten sie ihre Lunge voller Luft. Bei unbeschädigter Haut blähe sich das Tier auf, ohne Schaden zu nehmen. Ist die Haut jedoch angeschlitzt, reißt sie Mutschmann zufolge von der verletzten Stelle aus auf: Die Kröte platzt. Mutschmann kennt keine Mikroorganismen, die einer Erdkröte einen ähnlichen Schaden zufügen könnten. Gegen den Erreger des Gasbrandes, der verwundete Säugetiere aufblähen könne, seien die Amphibien resistent. Der Altonaer Fall sei nur so auffällig, weil er sich an einem isolierten Gewässer abgespielt habe.
Mutschmanns Theorie ist bisher die Einzige, die eine Erklärung für das rätselhafte Krötensterben bietet. Sie wird auch von Fachleuten in Hamburg geteilt, ist allerdings umstritten. Das Hygiene-Institut hat einige der Kadaver für weitere Untersuchungen an Spezialisten versandt.
http://www.taz.de/pt/2005/04/26/a0055.nf/text.ges,1

JYDSKE VESTKYSTEN (Esbjerg, Denmark) 27 April 05 Tudser svulmer op og eksploderer (Jannie Holm og Ritzau)
Opdateret Kl. 12: Hundredvis af tudser er af ukendte årsager begyndt at eksplodere i såvel en sø i Hamburg-bydelen Altona som i en sø ved Låsby i Midtjylland.
I Hamburg er op mod 1000 tudser døde, efter at deres kroppe er svulmet op til bristepunktet og eksploderet, hvorved deres indvolde er blevet kastet op til en meter op i luften.
Eksperterne kan ikke finde ud af, hvad der er skyld i, at tudserne lider den smertefulde død, der primært forekommer mellem klokken to og tre om natten.
Det besynderlige fænomen er også kommet til Danmark.
Et stort antal tudser, der lever ved søen Mosehullet i Låsby, er begyndt at efterligne deres tyske artsfællers kunststykke:
De kravler op på land, svulmer op og eksploderer.
Ifølge de tyske dyrlæger og biologer, kan der være flere grunde til, at tudserne eksploderer.
Indtil videre har tre muligheder været nævnt i de tyske medier:
Det kan skyldes en giftig svamp, der er blevet overført via hestepærer til dyrene i vandet.
Det kan skyldes en endnu ukendt virus, der kan gøre dyrene syge og få dem til at svulme op, eller også kan eksplosionerne være en uheldig form for forsvarsmekanisme, som tudserne bruger over for agressive krager, der forsøger at æde dem.
Myndighederne i Hamburg har taget vandprøver fra søen, der allerede er blevet døbt "dødens vandhul," og ifølge dem, er der ikke noget at frygte for, blandt mennesker og andre dyr. Smittefare skulle der i hvert fald ikke være tale om.
Dog er området for en sikkerheds skyld blevet spærret af og der er blevet sat advarselsskilte op på stedet.
Hvad status er på søen i Låsby, melder historien endnu ikke noget om.
http://www.jv.dk/indland/artikel:aid=384502/

LINCOLNSHIRE ECHO (UK) 29 April 05 Have City's Frogs Been Blown Apart By Mystery German Toad Disease?
More than 100 frogs may have been victims of a disease which causes them to explode.
The frogs' bodies were found lying scattered around a pond on Lincoln's South Common earlier this month.
The deaths, which were the fourth of their kind in six years, were initially thought to have been caused by thugs.
But hundreds of amphibians were also found dead at a pond in Hamburg, Germany, this week.
Scientists studied the pond at night and saw what was happening. Toads were seen swelling up to three and a half times their normal size before blowing apart.
It has been suggested that the toads exploded because of an unknown virus or a fungus that has infected the water.
Lincoln RSPCA inspector Dean Astill-Dunseith said disease was a possibility but didn't think it applied to Lincoln's amphibians.
"We didn't have this problem last year when we monitored the site," he said. "It's a theory and I am willing to listen but I don't think it's the truth."
Mr Astill-Dunseith said some of the amphibians on South Common's two ponds had survived their ordeal.
"I think if there was a disease it would have gone through the lot," he said.
"I would like to think it's not deliberate and that we don't have anybody that cruel in our city but I don't believe in the concept that it might be a strange disease.
"We are going to keep a close eye on them next year. If I find them dying, even though we're watching the site, I will transfer them to be checked for any signs of disease."
Jules Howard, Peterborough-based charity Froglife's information officer, said he thought other animals were to blame.
"I don't think disease is a possibility," he said. "This sort of thing is quite common at this time of year. There have been about 12 reports I have dealt with around the country of toads with cuts or incisions in their bodies.
"It's predator behaviour from rats, cats, crows, foxes and otters - they have a few bites then lose interest because toad skin is so distasteful."
Alison Townsend, of Weirfield Wildlife Hospital, in Rookery Lane, Lincoln, said anything was possible.
"We are still uncertain what the cause is," she said.
"Some reports say it could have been moorhens but there were none at the pond. It's just one of those mysteries."
Mrs Townsend said she had gone to the pond following the massacre. "It looked deliberate when I was there," she said. "But this needs looking into."
Care worker Lisa West (32), who lives in St Catherine's, said: "I was horrified at the thought of someone actually harming the frogs, so if this is what's causing their deaths then I suppose it is a kind of relief. Even so, it's still not a very nice way to go."
Have City's Frogs Been Blown Apart By Mystery German Toad Disease?