d*2
发帖数: 2053 | 1 http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110103/ts_yblog_thel
By Brett Michael Dykes brett Michael Dykes – Mon Jan 3, 12:10 pm ET
Maybe the Mayans were on to something?
That's surely what students of the famed Mayan 2012 prophecy for the end of
the world had to be thinking with the news of recent eerie wildlife die-offs
in Arkansas. Just as the calendar nudged a year closer to that fateful date
, birds began falling from the sky in Arkansas and a massive fish kill
occurred some 125 miles to the west.
Roughly 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky over a mile of land
near Beebe, a small town in northwest Arkansas, and observers spotted the
fish kill near the town of Ozark. You can watch a video report on the
blackbirds below, courtesy of ABC News:
And here's a CNN report on the incidents:
No one seems to know just yet what caused the two die-offs. But theories
abound.
In a statement Saturday morning, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
quoted staff ornithologist Karen Rowe as saying that such events have
happened before around the world: "Test results usually were inconclusive,
but the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit
by lightning or high-altitude hail."
Because it happened New Year's Eve, some officials suggest that revelers
shooting fireworks may have spooked the birds, to the point that they died
en masse from stress-induced cardiac arrest.
"It is unlikely they were poisoned," Rowe said, "but a necropsy is the only
way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin." Tests were to
begin Monday.
Click image to see photos of the dead birds
Daily Citizen/Warren Watkins, via AP
Meanwhile, wildlife officials say that the estimated 100,000 drum fish
discovered by a tugboat captain over a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River
appears to be a natural occurrence that isn't tied to the bird kill in any
way.
"The fish kill only affected one species of fish," Keith Stephens of the
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission told CNN. "If it was from a pollutant, it
would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish." He added that fish
kills in the area are common, though this one was larger than most.
UPDATE: A state veterinarian tells NBC that preliminary necropsy results
from several birds show that they died of "multiple blunt trauma to their
vital organs," though what caused the trauma remains uncertain. According to
Dr. George Badley, their stomachs were empty, so they weren't poisoned, and
they died in midair, not upon impact with the ground.
(Screengrab via CNN) |
|
