A news item that recently caught my eye involved the issue of exploding German toads. As the famed Dave Barry used to say, “I am not making this up”. Now, being a Queenslander — especially one who did some (physical) growing up in a rural environment — I am not unfamiliar with the ways in which a toad may die, but this is something even my country mates were unable to pull off.
Update: The always Extremely Useful Wikipedia now has an article on the toads.
Yes, I’ve actually seen a German exploding toads article twice in the Australian press. Once was the initial report – the second was a follow up report where a German vet apparently had figured it was due to crows eating their livers(?) and the toads inflated as a defence mechanism… ah, the global village… Jonathan
I mentioned the story of the exploding toads at a morning coffee break and no-one here had heard of it. Perhaps it’s not newsworthy enough here or it was a slow news day in Australia. Alternatively, the Aussies might have just been hoping for a solution to the cane toads.
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