Mystery of the holes in the toad

Mail Foreign Service

Last updated at 08:55 26 April 2005


A spate of exploding toads has left animal experts baffled.

Several thousand toads have spontaneously exploded in the parks of Hamburg.

Vets and animal welfare workers say that, as well as decimating the German port's toad population, the mystery has created the unpleasant problem of having body parts scattered over a wide area.

Eyewitnesses say the creatures swell to three and a half times their normal size before bursting and sending entrails flying into the air.

Nature protection worker Werner Smolnik said that over the last four days at least 1,000 toads had died in scenes reminiscent of 'a science fiction film'.

'Complete mystery'

He said: 'It's a complete mystery. We have a lot of ideas which we are following up, but at the moment we haven't the faintest idea if any of them are correct.

'It could be an unknown virus, or a fungus that has infected the water or a defence mechanism against aggressive crows which have appeared in the area recently.

'You see the toads crawling along, swelling as they go, until they are like little tennis balls and then they suddenly explode.'

Janne Kloepper, of the Hamburg Institute for Hygiene and the Environment, said: 'If this keeps up, there will be no toads left in Hamburg.'

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