Those frogs. I know what killed them, seen it before. Crows or some other intelligent bird have pecked out their livers. The birds swoop down, steal the liver without killing the frog, and eventually the frog bursts because of the lack of a liver to process various chemicals in its body. Sometimes they literally explode, other times they go... well... like that.
Did you happen to write the Wikipedia entry on exploding toads?
[Good Job Boots]
That's not what this is... it may be what the Independent reported in 2005, but it's not this specific case. This is two toads right by the edge of our pond that have ended up like that, both facing away from the pond like they were trying to get out. In the pond are at least a dozen dead Koi Carp (each about 12-15 inches long) so this is more than likely something to do with a contaminent in the water. Presumably. Can't think WHAT though, but we've been here for two years and only had one fish die in all that time... yet now all of them die (we sprinkled food today and there was no movement) so that all have now died at once, along with two rather large toads, is quite strange.Originally Posted by The Preacher
Oooooooh it's an invisible signature... oooooooooh!!
Life's greatest battles, often are fought alone.
No, I didn't. I don't edit Wikipedia at all, for that. I also didn't get this from Wikipedia. I saw it on QI, and we have thousands of frogs and toads around here. My garden is full of them, sometimes I stumble across one that looks like that and I didn't know why they went like that for years until I saw it on QI.
If the same thing killed all of Mark and Lorna's fish, it won't be that anyway. It could just be a coincidence that the fish and those toads died the same night. It might not. Damned odd anyway.
Used to go fishing a lot along a river and lake that had tons of toads, never saw anything like that, Google only brings up cases in Germany, Holland and Denmark. Must be something in the water down Cornwall way then - you don't happen to glow green at night do you?
[Good Job Boots]
Oooooooh it's an invisible signature... oooooooooh!!
Life's greatest battles, often are fought alone.
I glow green in the day, not just at night.
There is something in the water down here though. Lead, and arsenic, from all the old copper and tin mines. Tonnes of the stuff. It's why water rates in Cornwall are five times as much as most other parts of the country, and why our water tastes like it was taken from a swimming pool. Occasionally the purification goes wrong and people get poisoned, and there's a higher than usual proportion of children born in Cornwall who develop autism.
My grandmother is convinced my own health problems come from being down here. I wouldn't like to say. I'm a physicist, not a biologist.
You forgot "Jim" from the end of that
Oh... by the way... water is free in Scotland. And AWESOME!! Sucks to be anywhere but here!
Oooooooh it's an invisible signature... oooooooooh!!
Life's greatest battles, often are fought alone.
I reckon the two toads decided to have a 'who can hold their break the longest' compeition. Damn they were determined to win.
Now we know.
On the 72 back through Hammersmith a few weeks back and the bus hit some diversion in the road. Annoyed, I looked out the window to see what was going on down the regular route.
4 police cars, 2 vans and a series of police bikes barricaded the road under the overpass. 3 guys were pegging it down the left hand side of the barricade, 2 cars had been pulled over and another 3 men were leant against the cars, hands on head, under arrest. Each had a police guard.
Another police man, walking down the right side, was carrying a HUGE package of white powder, the size of my head. I thought this was pretty shocking - I saw a real drug bust.
Then I looked to the second car that was pulled over and I saw them zip up a body bag and pull out FOUR more huge packages of coke.
Hello, London.
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