Link to story. I read in my newspaper today that somewhere in Denmark, there’s a lake where every day, at the same time, some frogs are litterally exploding. Here’s another link.
Weird, no? 
Thankfully, at least according to your first link, they don’t seem to be exploding:
I’m always interested in frog stories because I remember reading, years ago, about forgs in Minnesota that were malformed. They had an extra leg or two, a missing leg, a partially-formed leg and other deformities. No one seemed to know what was causing it, at least they didn’t when I was reading about it at that time.
Apparently, the answer is fairly disgusting.
The current theory is that crows are attacking the toads. When the animals puff up as a defense mechanism, the crows peck out their livers and eat them. Apparently, this causes the blood vessels and lungs to swell up and burst.
Malformed frogs are pretty common these days, IIRC. I believe the accepted explanation isrising levels of toxicity in the environment from pollution.
Anyways, I read in the paper this morning (no link) that some scientists examining the “exploding” frogs problem think it’s a result of the frogs being attacked by birds who eat the frogs’ livers. The birds peck a hole in the frog to get at the liver. The frogs’ natural defense mechanism in this situation is to puff up, but because there’s now a hole in their bodies, all their guts squish out of it.
Ick.
–Cliffy
Frog gras?
[sub]sorry[/sub]
I recalling reading at some point that it wasn’t the pollution, per se, that caused the malformation; rather, the pollution gave rise to a type of parasite that screwed with tadpoles’ stem cells, as it were, so that normal growth was altered.
Can’t cite, so I could be wrong.
Germany last week, now Denmark.
If the phenomenon keeps moving northward, we should see exploding polar bears in the arctic circle by June
Why are the crows eating just the livers? That’s the part that I didn’t understand.
To find your kiloton, you’ve got to kiss a lot of toads.
C’mon folks. This is Denmark. The frogs are clearly hopped up on something.
Sorry, folks, it’s my fault.
I thought it would be funny to carbonate Denmark’s entire supply of drinking water with Alka-Seltzer. Apparently, the fucking toads got to it first.
I’d advise the Danes to avoid those crows, too.
Thread title had me thinking that French Tourists had been attacked. Then again, what would make a Frenchman explode?
Here is a story which details this theory. As the last paragraph states, the Hamburg lake in which over 1000 toads have died during this epidemic has literally been responsible for redefining the phrase “death pool”.
Hmm…let me guess…maybe having to accept an American (or even another European) as an equal?
Frog have incredibly sensitive skins. I noticed this in practice, my cats catch one or two every once in a while and two of them were left in my garden. At an amazing speed their skin dissolves and they turn into white skeletons. Reading this article, I reckon that the saliva from the cats’ mouth is probably enough to destabilise the skin, just as the mucus did in the article.