exploding cane toads

[abstemious_entity]

anybody heard about the cane toads bursting? http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=900&category=Environment what do you think is causing such phenomenon? what's bothering me is that , amphibians are like an intermediate between the aquatic and terrestrial environment. they are one of the first to respond to any significant change in their environment. how does this affect higher organisms?

[MrMistery]

I haven't read that article-i am lazy
Higher organisms, like birds and mamals react muchmore slowly to the same thing in the environment. Example: acid rain kills frogs because they breathe through their skin. Eventually it will kill us, but it is simply taking longer to do so

[Chris4]

Abstemious_entity - How does this affect higher organisms? Its not a pathogen or virus thats killing these toads. It dont think it will affect anything higher than toads.
The story is also here: http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050425/ ... 25-13.html
It seems that most people are going with the birds pecking at the toads and eating their liver, but i like the point i the nature article points out. Someone needs to go back and check the original source. Just because one person says the toads were swelling and exploding doesnt give 100% proof that thats whats happening.

[MrMistery]

Maybe, as i said i haven' read the article. I was talking about the effects of pollution and other environment factors on organisms in general. I agree that we won't see exploding humans for quite some time

[abstemious_entity]

_at_ Chris4: from what i inferred from the site, the only plausible cause is the birds. i agree with you, check the source.

is there is a specific species of birds acting as predators to this toads? have there been any records of similar phenomena in the past? surely this didn't jst happen recently. there has to be records of this occurence in the previous years. when do the toads usually migrate? what caused these birds to prey on these toads all of a sudden? an imbalance in nature maybe? which means that they have to look at the ecological aspect of this event. or evolution? but evolution takes time. if birds are really the cause, then they sure are a heck of smart birds. where did these birds come from? maybe they're just migrating and that's why the people in Germany are calling this a phenomenon.

[440DART]

I was reading about this and I'm not a pro but I find it really unlikly that this happend twice in a week or so in germany and denmark and that the cause is due to birds. Just dosn't seem to me that on two ocassions birds eat the livers out of 1,000 toads and then at the same time at night between 2-3 they all show up at once and explode. Anyone have any thoughs on this. Dose that really seem plausable? the only thing I can think of is the same birds going north did this twice. So the second Q: is what birds are in that area migrating that eat toads ? ANY BIRD PEOPLE HERE? just my thoughts --Andrew

[Madrick]

If you click the two links at the bottom of the page, one of them talks of them being a horrid pest. They even offered a cash prize for whoever made the best trap. At the end of the post on the news24 site, they talk of a bioweapon for eradicating the toads...
Could this be the way? Exploding the toads to get rid of them, at nightfall so less people see it? It's a conspiracy I say!

Another crazy post by Madrick