Hungry crows may be behind exploding toads - Science - MSNBC.com

Hungry crows may be behind exploding toads - Science - MSNBC.com: "Hungry crows may be behind exploding toads
More than 1,000 creatures have puffed up and popped
Image: Toad in Hamburg pond.
Florian Quand / AP
The pond in Hamburg where the corpses have been found has been tested, but its quality is no better or worse than elsewhere in the city.

The Associated Press
Updated: 4:10 p.m. ET April 28, 2005

BERLIN - What’s making toads puff up and explode in northern Europe? More than 1,000 toad corpses have been found at a pond in an upscale neighborhood in Hamburg and over the border in Denmark after bloating and bursting.

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It’s left onlookers baffled. The pond water in Hamburg has been tested, but its quality is no better or worse than elsewhere in the city. The toad remains have been checked for a virus or bacterium, but none has been found.

One German scientist studying the splattered amphibian remains has a theory: Hungry crows are pecking out their livers.

“The crows are clever,” said Frank Mutschmann, a Berlin veterinarian who collected and tested specimens at the Hamburg pond. “They learn quickly from watching other crows how to get the livers.”

Based on the wounds, Mutschmann said, it appears that a bird pecks into the toad with its beak between the amphibian’s chest and abdominal cavity, and the toad puffs itself up as a natural defense mechanism.

But, because the liver is missing and there’s a hole in the toad’s body, the blood vessels and lungs burst and the other organs ooze out, he said.

As gruesome as it sounds, it isn’t actually that unusual, he said.

“It’s not unique — it’s in a city area, and that makes it spectacular,” Mutschmann said. “Of course, it’s something very dramatic.”

There have also been reports of exploded toads in a pond near Laasby in central Jutland in Denmark.

Horror scene
Local environmental workers in Hamburg have described it as a scene out of a horror or science fiction movie, with the"