Exploding Toad Update -- Experts refuted

Reports have been coming in for several weeks now regarding exploding toads in a pool near Hamburg, Germany. For my previous posts see here and here.

As reports were coming experts mobilized to explain the phenomenon. First they looked for diseases and found none. Then they looked for pollutants and found none. Then they decided it was bird attacks that somehow caused toads to explode when they inflated their bodies to defend themselves. That, however, seemed improbable, especially since there were no reports of bird attacks. So the experts then decided that, since they couldn't account for them, the exploding toads didn't exist. The eyewitnesses didn't know what they were talking about -- probably saw carcasses of toads mutilated by crows and simply assumed they had exploded -- silly laymen, letting their imaginations run wild.

But the eyewitness accounts were pretty specific. Here's one cited in the Christian Science Monitor:

"I could hardly believe what I saw," [a witness] told the Telegraph. "Dozens of toads were crawling out of the water. They were puffed up to almost three times their normal size and making strange screeching noises. Then they just started popping. Some just went 'phut!'... but others literally exploded."

Now it seems,

exploding toads are not a new phenomenon: they've apparently been reported as early as 1968, in Germany, Denmark, Belgium, and even America. And though it may seem a particularly unpleasant way for the toads to go, it's a perfectly normal occurrence, really.

Read the whole thing here.

That's right folks -- nothing to see here, move along..., keep moving. Hey guys, these toads are EXPLODING! The phenomenon may be widespread, but it is NOT normal. This is extraordinary and more so since it cannot be explained by any of the usual tropes [disease, pollution, bird attacks, etc.]. Somebody write a grant proposal to study this, quick.