(Dec 28) A 40ft sperm whale has been washed up dead with what appears to be a large gash in its stomach. The sand around its tail did not appear disturbed, suggesting the creature was dead before the tide carried it onto the sands at Old Hunstanton, Norfolk in the U.K. (Source)
(Dec 28) A 13m (43ft) sperm whale was washed up on Connemara’s Omey island in Ireland the last week of December. It has become such a tourist attraction that an estimated 8,000 people have already visited it. (Source)
(Dec 27) Dozens of dead fish are floating towards the mouth of the Caloosahatchee river in Florida. Many fear red tide is to blame, and some charter fishermen worry this could affect their bottom line. (Source)
(Dec 27) More than 30 birds are lying dead on Indian Mound Drive in Montgomery County, Kentucky. All the birds appear to be the same species, and seem to have died and landed at this spot all at once. No word yet about what caused their death. (Source)
(Dec 24) Three of the rarest turtles in the world have washed up on British beaches. They were dragged thousands of miles from their normal habitats in warmer waters by stormy weather. The two young Kemp’s ridleys and one green turtle died because of the cold after being blasted off course by massive currents during storms in Scotland earlier this month. (Source)
(Dec 24) At least four tonnes of fish died over the last three days in a pond near Kerala, a village located 38 km from Ahmedabad in India. (Source)
(Dec 22) Known as caribou in North America, the world’s largest herd of reindeer has gone into decline – and could be wiped out within a few years. More than 90 per cent of the George River population, which roams northern Canada, has vanished in the past two decades. Numbers have fallen by 24,000 in the last year alone. (Source)
(Dec 22) In Utah, Wildlife officials and Clearfield city officials are investigating the mysterious death of thousands of starlings in Davis County. State wildlife officials are warning residents to stay away from the dead birds. (Source)
(Dec 21) Piles of dead crows, possibly hundreds of them, have been found at Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park in Las Cruces, New Mexico. (Source)
(Dec 19) The bodies of 25 ponies with no obvious wounds have been dumped near a cliff in northern New South Wales in Australia. The animals of various colours and ages were in the early stages of decomposition. (Source)
(Dec 20) Since mid-July, more than 60 dead and 75 diseased seals, most of them ringed seals, have been reported in Alaska, with reports continuing to come in. During their fall survey, scientists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also identified diseased and dead walruses at the annual mass haul-out at Point Lay. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the recent deaths of ringed seals in the Arctic and Bering Strait regions of Alaska an unusual mortality event, triggering a focused, expert investigation into the cause of these deaths. (Source)
(Dec 17) Massachusetts state biologists are unsure what caused the death of about 16 swans near Mill Pond in Westborough. (Source)
(Dec 14) Thousands of migratory birds died on impact after apparently mistaking a Wal-Mart parking lot and other areas of southern Utah for bodies of water and plummeting to the ground in what one wildlife expert called the worst downing she’s ever seen. Crews went to work cleaning up the dead birds and rescuing the survivors after the creatures crash-landed in the St. George area. Volunteers had rescued more than 2,000 birds, releasing them into nearby bodies of water. (Source)
(Dec 12) The mysterious epidemic that has claimed hundreds of crows in Jharkhand, India has now spread to Hazaribagh, with 350-odd scavengers perishing in Vishnugarh and Katkamsandi over the weekend, triggering panic among residents who have been advised by experts not to touch the carcasses. More than 1,000 crows have died in Jamshedpur alone in the past one and a half months, besides a number of deaths in Ghatshila and Giridih. In a report sent to the Union agriculture ministry on Thursday, the Indian Veterinary Research Institute’s (IVRI) Bhopal centre had held the avian influenza virus, H5N1, responsible for the crow deaths in Jharkhand. (Source)
(Dec 10) 400 Cape Fur seals are thought to have died when they were swept off Seal Island, a rocky outcrop three miles off the coast in Cape Town, South Africa, by strong winds and high seas. The deaths are a habitual occurrence but not normally in such large. Around 100 seal pups were discovered on two beaches on Friday near the south coast resort town of Muizenberg, 15 miles south of Cape Town. Another 300 were washed ashore 11 miles away on the north coast at the village of Kommetjie. (Source)
(Dec 9) It was a strange sight in Bloomfield, New Mexico, where 40 to 50 dead birds were found along U.S. 64. The Daily-Times reports about 30 dead birds were north of the highway and about 20 additional piles of flattened feathers were on the highway. Wildlife biologist thinks they likely roosted in shrubs north of the highway Wednesday night and died when they flew into the side of a large truck driving the highway late at night or early in the morning. (Soruce)
(Dec 9) For the third time in two weeks a green sea turtle — a prehistoric species that’s 150 million years old and that’s now threatened — has washed up on British Columbia’s shores, a rare appearance that’s baffling ocean experts. (Soruce)
(Dec 6) The Press-Register encountered 20 dead pelicans just south of Gaillard Island in the middle of Mobile Bay in Alabama. The pelicans had no apparent injuries and were all floating within a quarter mile of each other. (Source)
(Nov 30) The effects of red tide are making their way towards Southwest Florida beaches. The beach on Sanibel Island is littered with dead fish, crabs and shells – some of them victims of red tide. Others have been dead for a while and were washed up onto the beach. According to officials, this red tide is the worst ever experienced since 2006. (Source)
(Nov 30) Another dead dolphin, the fifth in the past week, was found at Waveland in Alabama. They are all about the same age and were about 5½-feet long. The green circles indicate where stranded dolphins have been found along the Gulf Coast since February 2010, and the pink circles indicate where they have been found in the past week. The squares indicate other beached species. The total stranding count as of Nov 20 has been 596. (Source)
