Image:Tv_local_6_toads.jpg in Orlando.]] An '''Exploding toad''' occurs when a Crow, hunting for toad liver, attacks a puffed up toad. The Phenomenon was first noticed in April 2005 in districts of Hamburg, Germany and near a lake at Låsby, Denmark, dubbed "The Pond of Death." No other animals in the area were exploding. What differentiates the exploding toads in these incidents from most other exploding Animals is that they explode while alive. Exploding_whales, for example, are a result of the buildup of gases during the process of Decomposition (the obvious exception is when the use of dynamite is involved). ==Description== According to worldwide media reports in late April 2005, numerous Toads in the Altona district of Hamburg were observed by nature protection officials to swell up with Gases and explode, propelling their innards for distances of up to one meter. These incidents prompted local residents to refer to the area's lake—home to the toads—as "Tümpel des Todes" (Pool of Death). The incidents were reported as occurring with greatest frequency between 2 and 3 a.m. Werner Smolnik, Environmental_movement worker, stated on April_26, 2005 at least 1,000 toads had died in this manner over a series of a few days. According to a Witness, "toads swell up to three-and-a-half times their normal size before blowing up". It is unlikely that a toad, however bluffy, could inhale and store so much Air. ==Explanations== Berlin Veterinarian Franz Mutschmann collected corpses and performed autopsies. From his work, it was determined that the phenomenon was linked to a recent influx of predatory Crows to the area. The cause was a mixture of crow attacks and the natural puff up defense of the toads. Crows attacked the toads to pick through the skin between the amphibian's chest and abdominal cavity, picking out the liver, which appears to be a delicacy for Crows in the area. In a defensive move, the toads begin to blow themselves up, which in turn, due to the hole in the toad's body and the missing liver, led to a rupture of blood vessels and lungs, and to the spreading of intestines. The apparent epidemic nature of the phenomenon was also explained by Mutschmann: "Crows are intelligent animals. They learn very quickly how to eat the toads' livers." Other explanations included a viral or fungal infection, possibly one also affecting foreign Horses involved in racing at a nearby track. However, laboratory tests were unable to detect an infectious agenthttp://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/27/exploading.toads.ap/index.html. Danish biologists suggested Pesticides as an explanation. Increased Ultraviolet_radiation caused by Ozone_depletion was also been suggested. Another opinion was that the eye witness accounts were flawed, confused, or mistaken. ==Exploding amphibians in fiction== In a story titled "The_Frog_and_the_Ox" of the Aesop's_Fables, a Frog, seeing an ox walking by, wanted to become as large and powerful as the ox. The poor frog filled itself full of air again and again. It exploded as a result. In the film ''Reflecting_Skin'', two boys insert a drinking straw into a toad's cloaca and inflate it, leaving it on the side of a path. The first person to come by and see the poor suffering toad bends over to inspect it, only to have it explode all over them when the boys shoot it with a Slingshot. A widely-circulated Urban_legend claims that you can explode a toad by putting a Cigarette in its mouth because toads inhale through their mouths but they exhale through their skin. If the air is too polluted this process cannot be completed and the gases continue to build up until they explode. This is not true: frogs and toads are Amphibian Animals, and even though the amphibian Skin can perform Gas_exchange, it is unrelated to Lung Expiration (see: Buccal_pumping). Even if the frog or toad keeps performing non-stop Inhalation, which is impossible anyway, the air would not build up in its body and cause it to explode. The experimental music group Coil wrote a song called "Omlagus Garfungiloops" that features a voice sample saying "Have you been exploding frogs again?". The title of the song is based on taking the above voice sample and playing parts of it backwards to achieve a strange non-language. In the Playstation game Final_Fantasy_Tactics, Malak sends a toad to give Ramza a message. The toad explodes and startles Ramza after it stops talking. In the background of the game Warhammer_40,000, one of the many deadly creatures that inhabits the Death World of Catachan is the Great (and Lesser) Catachan Barking Toad, which when threatened, explodes into a cloud of toxins that kills all life in the immediate area, an area that can stretch for a kilometer, in the case of the Great Barking Toad. In the computer game Marathon_2:_Durandal and subsequent titles, the assimilated BoBs, who try to kill the player by exploding, will sometimes yell "Frog blast the vent core!" In the DreamWorks animated feature film Shrek, a toad (and a snake) are inflated as balloons by Shrek and Fiona. They do not explode, but as a result of Fiona's high-pitched singing, a bird does. In the 2003 comic book to film adaptation ''Hulk'', a failed experiment on regenerative healing causes a frog to explode. This causes Bruce_Banner to quip, "You want to go to the review board on Monday and tell them we have developed a brand new method for exploding frogs?" ==See also== * Decline_in_frog_populations * Spontaneous_human_combustion {{exploding animals}} ==External links== * Mystery of German exploding toads (BBC News) * Exploding toads baffle experts (ABC News online) * Exploding toads baffle German experts * Exploding Toads...The Storied Remains (Annals of Improbable Research) * In einem Gewässer in Hamburg starben bereits Hunderte Amphibien einen mysteriösem Tod: Der Tümpel der explodierenden Erdkröten (in German) * Explosive Kröten (in German) * Sprængfarlige tudser kommet til Danmark (in Danish) * The Frog and the Ox * Debunking the exploding animals myths * Exploding Toads Baffle Experts - Contains image * Mystery of toads that explode in the night - Interesting theories regarding strategic voluntary toad explosion discussed Toad Category:Toads Fr:Explosion_de_grenouille He:קרפדה_מתפוצצת