It has been a rough year for animals so far, particularly birds and fish.  There have been countless massive and unexplained animal deaths since the year began.  Even some with official explanations still seem questionable.

The New Year began ominously with 5,000 blackbirds literally falling out of the sky is Beebe, Arkansas.  Officials have concluded that fireworks were probably to blame for scaring the birds and causing them to fly into each other and other objects.  But, fireworks are launched at least two times a year in most communities and such a large number of bird deaths are extremely rare.  Following that, it was difficult to keep up with the dying birds.  Large numbers of birds were found dead in Sweden, Italy, Louisiana, Kentucky, and California.   Even just last week, 200 geese in Ohio have died and many more are sick.  Officials have offered a number of explanations for the bird deaths although nothing has been conclusive.  Officials also stress that these occurrences are not connected.   Are the large number of dead birds a normal thing that we have just focused on more or is it something else?

Marine life has also been dying at alarming rates.  Hundreds of thousands of fish were found dead in the Arkansas River, not far from the first bird deaths in Arkansas.  Fish were found dead in Florida, New Zealand, and Illinois.   An estimated 40,000 crabs washed ashore in England during January.  Two million fish were found dead in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.  In Brazil, millions of dead fish washed up on the beach.  Officials blame most of the deaths on cold temperatures.

More recently, some mammals have died in massive numbers.  10,000 cattle died in Vietnam and officials say that cold weather is to blame.  However, the weather wasn’t really that cold and cattle can survive in colder weather.  200 cows died in Wisconsin, but that is one animal death with a definitive answer—the poor cows ate moldy sweet potatoes.   Now, the dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico are turning up dead.  Although, this probably isn’t very mysterious since millions of gallons of oil spilled there last year.  60 dolphins, many newborns, have been found dead in the last month.  Is this all just a normal cycle of nature or is it something else?

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