I thought I’d try to find out what reporting, if any, has been appearing in Hamburg itself concerning the Level 2 Exploding Toad Situation, which was not all that easy since none of the Hamburg news media websites are in English. After making the helpful discovery that the Germans, not so surprisingly, have a word for toad-death, Krötensterben, the search became easier and I have some more information to report. I’m having trouble getting a link to the translated site to work properly, so I’ll just transcribe the information for you.

Burst Toads - Far Mysteries Around Cause Of Death
Mystery rates around the cause of death of hundreds of earth toads in a pool at the Altonaer cemetery (we reported) continues. For well two weeks some the burst toads in Hygiene-Institut are examined, but the scientists grope still in the dark. Speculation, the toads were angepickt by birds, considers Institut like the nature protection federation improbable. "We held the animals, which were crawled ashore, in the hand. 15 minutes later blew themselves it up and exploded. Birds were not there ", say Werner Smolnik. He believes, by foreign horses on the trabrennbahn exciters arrived into the pool.

Wait, exciters arrived into the pool by foreign horses on the trabrennbahn? An intriguing theory, but one which needs elaboration. Which the next article helpfully provides.

Altona: Earth Toads Die Painful
The earth toad draws a deep breath only weakly, their body blows itself like a balloon, until their stomach finally out-pours. It is a schauriges play, which takes place at the pool at the Altonaer cemetery. More than 1000 toads are in the past week already at a mysterious illness painful end. On late Sunday past week Spaziergaenger had called evening with the nature protection federation (Nabu) in Altona. They had found hundreds of toads dead at the edge of the small pool. "I did not experience such a thing ever. We stand before a mystery", say Janne Kloepper (45), spokeswoman of the institute. The veterinarian Dr. Horst Siems (63), which with the investigations at the Instiut is entrusted, does not exclude also a Umweltdelikt. Werner Schmolnik (58) of the Nabu has already a suspicion, from where the pathogens could come: "similar incidents are well-known us from South America. On the close convenient trabrennbahn also running horses made of South America run. By their horse apples the exciters could arrive into the oberflaechenwasser and in such a way into the pool." So far only the toads are in the pool concerned, but as long as a danger for humans cannot be excluded, the area remains approximately locked around waters.

We stand before a mystery indeed, and can only hope and pray that this is not an Umweltdelikt we are facing. Keep checking this site for further Krötensterben updates, which we will pass along as soon as they come into our offices.