Thousands of turtles have exploded in pond in Hamburg and scientists are baffled.
”It’s absolutely strange,” said Janne Kloepper, of the Hamburg-based Institute for Hygiene and the Environment. ”We have a really
unique story here in Hamburg. This phenomenon really doesn’t seem to have
appeared anywhere before.”The toads at a pond in the upscale neighborhood of Altona
have been blowing up since the beginning of the month, filling up like balloons
until their stomachs suddenly burst.”It looks like a scene from a science-fiction movie,” Werner Schmolnik, the
head of a local environment group, told the Hamburger Abendblatt daily. ‘
I’m sure it will be, very soon. Rob Lowe, call your agent!
Hey, are they turtles or are they toads? It may not seem important to you, but there’s a much higher shrapnel quotient if it’s the former…
Toads, not turtles – there are usually no wild turtles in Germany 😉
That is bizarre. I’m working on a disappearing frog story, a real one too, but this is the first of this type of demise I’ve seen. I actually survey this kind of thing for a living. The amphibians are disappearing worldwide for a number of reasons. pesticides, habitat destruction, ultraviolet radiation, parasites and so on. I’ll run it by Dr. Gary Fellers.
Have you heard the latest? Apparently, the prevailing theory thus far is that crows or some other predator is hunting around that pond and literally SCARING the toads to death.
Yep, scare ’em bad enough, toads go boom!
I don’t find that credible.
All right: Who fed ’em beans and water?
But if the cause was beans and water, wouldn’t the…ah…result just pass straight on through unless there was a case of…blockage…
Shutting off mind now.