Residents of Hamburg, Germany have an unusual problem to deal with: exploding frogs. The frogs appear perfectly normal. However, at night they swell to three times their normal size and then explode, spewing body parts up to 3 feet. Thousands of frogs have died this way already. The incidents are happening near a pond in the Altona district that tabloid newspapers are referring to as the “Pond of Death”.

It is unknown why this is happening. One theory is that this is the result of an illness, perhaps caused by something in the lake. Another theory is that the frogs swell up to protect themselves against crows, but the defense mechanism goes out of control.