Mass animal deaths are
not unusual. As the daughter of an environmentalist educator, I know this to be true. However, there's nothing normal in my small opinion, about the number of animal species seemingly singled out in many parts of the world to be instantly struck down out of the sky or washed up on shore. Yet I can't help but wonder - if this is all a big coincidence and disease, trauma, H1N1, cold waters, etc. are to blame - is the Internet and the media to blame for all the hype? Information travels fast. Much faster than ever before. Perhaps we're seizing each event too quickly, without realizing that normal die-offs just haven't been sensationalized like this before. Or maybe not...
The alleged culprits for the sudden deaths? Indigestion for the seven-hundred turtle doves that rained down over Faenza, Italy last Wednesday, January 5th, 2011. Fireworks blamed for the
hundreds of jackdaws that fell dead to the ground in Sweden (A truck driver tried to take the blame as well, claiming he ran them over but yet there was no outward phsyical damage). Fireworks were also blamed for five-thousand blackbirds and starlings littered roads in Beebe, Arkansas in the US on New Years Eve 2010. Over 100 miles away one-hundred thousand drumfish washed up on shore, an event said to be unrelated. The cold. The cold. The cold. More of the cold. The list goes on...
- Hundreds of dead snapper fish found on the shores of Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand.
- Forty-thousand dead crabs on the shores near Kent, England.
- 450 birds fallen dead in Louisiana, US.
- Two-million dead spotfish in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, Us.
And I can still go on... and on...
- Manatees in Florida (just a few)
- Starfish and Jellyfish in South Carolina
- 150 Tons of Talapias in Thailand
- Hundreds of fish in Aulstralia
- Snappers and Penguins in New Zealand
You can't help but get caught up in this, right? I haven't even documented them all. If you want to keep track, you can visit BuzzFeed's
interactive map.
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