Sunday, April 24, 2005

Exploding toads baffle experts

"According to reports from animal welfare workers and veterinarians as many as a thousand of the amphibians have perished after their bodies swelled to bursting point and their entrails were propelled for up to a metre." (Via The Anomalist.)

Wait . . . This isn't in Revelations . . .
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Give a couple of kids a tank of compressed air and....

7:36 PM
Mac said...

It sounds to me as if the toads are exploding after decomposing. But if they explode when they're alive, can you imagine a *human* ailment with the same effects? Look out!

7:54 PM
JohnFen said...

The toads are indeed alive when this happens, if the reports are to be believed. Currently heading up the list of theories is that the toads have some kind of bacterial infection (leading to internal necrosis, I assume...)

8:29 PM
Anonymous said...

Actually, I remember reading about a similar human case in the New Yorker's "Annals of Medicine," I think it was. Portions of a woman's intestines suffered necrosis (I think from a bacterial or viral infection) and become non-functional, and so gas simply accumulated causing tremendous bloating. (Fortunately, the Dr. who wrote the article was able to save her.)

10:03 PM

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