Why are toads puffing up and spontaneously exploding in northern Europe? It began in a posh German neighborhood and has spread across the border into Denmark. It's left onlookers baffled, but one German scientist studying the splattered amphibian remains now has a theory: Hungry crows may be pecking out their livers.

"The crows are clever," said Frank Mutschmann, a Berlin veterinarian who collected and tested specimens at the Hamburg pond. "They learn quickly from watching other crows how to get the livers."

So far, more than 1,000 toad corpses have been found at a pond in Hamburg and in Denmark. But the pond water in Hamburg has been tested, and its quality is no better or worse than elsewhere in the city. The remains have been checked for a virus or bacteria, but none has been found.

Based on the wounds, Mutschmann said, it appears that a bird pecks into the toad with its beak between the amphibian's chest and abdominal cavity, and the toad puffs itself up as a natural defense mechanism.

But, because the liver is missing and there's a hole in the toad's body, the blood vessels and lungs burst and the other organs ooze out, he said.

As gruesome as it sounds, it isn't actually that unusual, he said.

"It's not unique - it's in a city area, and that makes it spectacular," Mutschmann said. "Of course, it's something very dramatic."

There have also been reports of exploded toads in a pond near Laasby in central Jutland in Denmark.

Local environmental workers in Hamburg have described it as a scene out of a horror or science fiction movie, with the bloated frogs agonizing and twitching for several minutes, inflating like a balloon before suddenly bursting.

"It's horrible," biologist Heidi Mayerhoefer was quoted as telling the Hamburger Morgenpost daily.

"The toads burst, the entrails slide out. But the animal isn't immediately dead - they keep struggling for several minutes."

Hamburg's Institute for Hygiene and the Environment regularly tests water quality in the city, and found no evidence that the toads were diseased. The institute even ruled out that the toads were suffering because of a fungus brought in from South America.

Other theories have been that horses on a nearby track infected them with a virus, or even that the toads are taking the selfless way out - sacrificing themselves by suicide to save others from overpopulation.

Could hungry crows be a reasonable answer?

"We haven't seen that. It might be, it might not be," said institute spokeswoman Janne Kloepper. "It's speculation," until it's observed, she said.

Local officials in Hamburg were advising residents to stay away from the pond dubbed by German tabloids, "the death pool."

Don't you love prophets ? Forget Nostradamus, ignore Thomas the Rhymer and shove your Mother Shipton, keep your eye on Malachy, the seer of Ireland



The next Pope, according to St. Malachy, will be "The Glory of the Olive."

This may refer to someone from the Order of Benedict which is also called the Olivetans.

Or it could merely pertain to a country where olives grow in profusion.

The Order of Benedict, however, has claimed that one of the final Popes will be from the Benedictan Order and he will lead the Catholic Church in a war against evil.

The final Pope, according to St. Malachy's prophecy, will be Petrus Romanus, or Peter of Rome. This is when the seven hills of the city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will take his place upon the bench.

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Part of the process of determining that a Pope has died and is not merely sleeping calls for him to be tapped on the forehead with a silver hammer.


The Vatican customs surrounding the passing of a Pope and the election of his successor seem mysterious to outsiders, both because of their arcane nature and because members of the general population gain exposure to them only at those rare instance in their own lifetimes when a Pontiff dies. Consequently, just about any act said to be part of those rituals seems somewhat believable. One particularly odd belief asserts that after the Bishop of Rome passes on, he is struck in the head with a silver hammer to confirm that he is well and truly gone and not merely sleeping soundly.

There is disagreement as to whether such a procedure is part of the parting process. We do know that once a Pope appears to have left this world, a pronouncement is made in Latin that he is dead, with this news certified by a physician. The camerlengo (chamberlain) calls out the pontiff's baptismal name three times over the corpse in an effort to prompt a response. Failing to get one, he destroys with a silver hammer that particular Bishop of Rome's Pescatorio (Ring of the Fisherman), along with the dies used to make lead seals for apostolic letters. The pope's quarters are then sealed, and funeral arrangements are begun by the camerlengo.

Some believe after the deceased has failed to answer to his name being called three times, and before his ring and seals are defaced, he is tapped on the forehead with a small silver hammer. That intelligence has been sped along by Stephen Bates, a journalist who penned a widely quoted-from article on rituals attaching to the passing of Popes.

For instance, in 2003 The Guardian quoted Bates thus:
After the pope dies, an event confirmed when a senior member of staff strikes him on the forehead with a silver hammer and calls his baptismal name to make sure he is not just asleep, the cardinals will gather within a fortnight in the Vatican to deliberate in great secrecy on the choice of his successor.

According to the Vatican, this is a myth.