Mass animal deaths continue, and so do scientists' stupid explanations

Maybe they should just stick with "these things happen all the time."  It's obviously untrue to the observant citizen, but at least it's better than "they ate too much." 

If you're reading this, no doubt you're all-too familiar with the spate of mass animal deaths that has plagued Earth the past couple weeks.  Birds, fish, crabs, and turtles.  The latest stories are thousands of fish in the Chicago area, 100 dead birds in California, and hundreds of turtle doves in Italy. 

Scientists' explanations?  In the case of the fish in Chicago, Lake Michigan Program biologist Dan Makauskas says the cold killed them.  Very similar to the "this stuff happens all the time" pat answer.  But if this stuff indeed happens all the time, why don't I recall any stories from the Chicago area of this sort of thing happening before?  I don't live there, but I think it would be a national news story if and when it happened.  Maybe not every time, but since it happens "all the time" one would think it would make a newscast or headline once in a while.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe this sort of thing does happen in Lake Michigan frequently.  I'd LOVE for someone to show me it has and does.  Until then, I'm sticking with my opinion that something larger and unique is going on here.

As for the 700 dead Italian turtle doves, experts are seriously proposing that you believe they ate too much.  700 birds all ate too much and died together. That's their explanation.  And they continue to expect you to respect them and their word.

But we're not a planet of idiots.  Something stinks here, and we would appreciate if those who called themselves our authorities actually got to work on determining what it is and spent a lot less time trying to give us crap explanations that are ridiculous at face value.  Unfortunately for these "authorities", we are not as stupid as their answers.

It would honestly be better for these people to just admit they don't know any better than we do.

2 news stories about massive wildlife deaths in Arkansas. Connected?

(Update Jan.5, 2011: Scientists struggling to explain massive worldwide wildlife deaths)


One of the first stories that caught my eye this morning was about a massive fishkill along the Arkansas River. Weird thing about it is only one species of fish died, the drum.  Of course, this happened a couple states downstream from where the river runs through my hometown of Wichita, KS - nevertheless, it makes me wonder what the cause may be.

Minutes after coming across that story, however, I'm accosted by another headline from the Washington Post about wildlife dying in droves in Arkansas.  In what seems like an aviary version of the ill-fated ABC drama FlashForward, more than 1,000 blackbirds just seemed to have dropped dead.  (Edit 4:20pm CST, 1.3.2011 - although initially reported to be 1,000 redwing blackbirds, the numbers have been changed to 4,000 to 5,000 birds.) 

Could it just be coincidence?  Hardly likely.  Reason suspects a connection.  And why drum but not small-mouth bass?  Why blackbirds but not robins?  Such large numbers dead, but only a single species in each case.  How is it possible that 5,000 birds of only one species died together in one little section of Arkansas?  Thousands of fish die in one section of the Arkansas River, but only ONE species of fish. 

It's all very weird.  I'd like to thank TV News Lies for bringing both stories to my attention.  I hope they'll pass along a connection to the events if one is found.