October 22, 2004 Lansing, Michigan - Several incidents of unexplained animal deaths have been reported recently.

George Noory has taken up dicussion of this topic recently. I fell asleep listening to it but he had Linda Moulton Howe on a few days ago talking about her investigation fo the phenomenon.

yeah, that is where I read it, earth files. Caught my eye cause I live in michigan.

Original story abouth the mystery dead squirrels...

Squirrels washing ashore along West Michigan beaches

[link to www.woodtv.com]

(Grand Haven, September 28, 2004, 8:03 a.m.) You´ve heard of dead fish washing up along the lake shore, but now it´s squirrels. Dozens have surfaced along the beaches from Grand Haven to Muskegon, and the experts have no idea why.

Some think farmers are trapping sometimes nuisance squirrels and throwing them in the Grand River. Others think it´s West Nile Virus. Whatever the cause, dozens red squirrels have washed ashore or been have spotted floating in the channel in the Grand Haven area in the last two weeks.

“Wildlife do die for many reasons out there, but this is unusual. So there´s more going on than random chance,” says DNR wildlife biologist Nik Kalejs.

Four dead squirrels were shipped to Michigan State University for testing. They´ll look at West Nile Virus, a disease called Mange, and various poisons. Looking at the bodies, experts say nothing is obvious and that there are no gun shot wounds or signs of trauma. They hope to have test results back in about a week.

If you find not just one dead squirrel but a group of them, call the DNR Muskegon State Game Area Office at 231-788-5055
_________________
"Curiouser & curiouser," said Alice

Update on Mysterious Squirrel deaths in Michigan:

[link to www.earthfiles.com]

Scroll down a bit. Linda Moulton Howe interviews Department of Natural Resources´ Wildlife Biologist. {Story will also be on Coast-to-Coast AM Friday night [[10/22/04]]}.

Three were tested & no conclusions have been made. No West Nile, no metals, no poisoning, no signs of organ damage. No other animals among the dead, just Fox & few Grey Squirrels. Some people reported seeing squirrels swimming across the Grand River [a fairly sizable river in West Michigan]. Why? Perhaps a population exodus, migration?

Still too weird.

[link to www.stuff.co.nz]

A sunfish that washed up near the base of Farewell Spit is a monster with a strange sense of timing, a marine expert says.
The 3m sunfish was discovered at Taupata Creek near Puponga by passers-by on Sunday.
Department of Conservation worker and Pakawau resident Heather Gunn said she was driving past when she saw "a big lump" on the beach, which she initially thought to be a whale.
"It looked fresh. It did not smell and it had not been pecked over."
A sunfish washed up on Farewell Spit at Christmas 2002, and another was washed up on Pakawau Beach about four years ago.
DOC marine specialist Andrew Baxter said the most recent sunfish discovery was "a real oddity" because of the time of year.
"The literature says they can be found in New Zealand´s north-eastern waters in warm summers, and they can stray south of Cook Strait. But this is definitely not a warm summer, rather a cold spring."
Mr Baxter said sunfish could grow up to 3m long and weigh up to a tonne.
After seeing a photograph of the sunfish, Mr Baxter estimated it was between 2m and 3m long.

"They hope to have test results back in about a week."

This article was from 9/28...so results should have been published by now. Anybody hear of any updates?

Haven´t heard anything new but it does raise some alarm within me. WTF is going on here?

Sincat: The update/interview from Howe is dated Oct 22nd...

3 Crows - Thanks! Didn´t notice the date on that one. It is pretty unnerving that no cause was found. Mass squirrel suicide perhaps? Maybe they know something we don´t!

I´m very near Lansing though, and will keep my eyes and ears open for any updates in local papers.

Hmmm, they may not want to alarm the locals.....

LOL! True enough!

its wierd, last year my apple tree was lousy with apples. This year nothing.... Same with the neighbors tree.

They DROWNED???

For lack of food??

Don´t squirrels know how to swim?



Heading outside now with a 50 lb. bag of peanuts.

Nite all.

Thanks for the Free Press update, AC. Hadn´t seen that one. Still weird.

Seems to me they could determine quite readiliy whether or not the acorn production was low this year (or even last year)... I mean, MSU is renown for their Agricultural Programs fer chrissakes.. nope, I´m not buyin the ´migrating for food´ theory/guess. Besides... WHERE exactly are they swimming TO that would have a better crop of acorns?? Chicago?

But the drowning conclusion supports a theory that the squirrels were part of mass migration of squirrels searching for food.

That makes NO sense! No food in Michigan in the fall? I guess we ran out of acorns and walnuts early this year.

Something smells.

The squirrels are trying to get to my house!
they just have a notoriously BAD sense of direction! Plenty of acorns in my backyard, front yard, driveway, sidewalk, flower garden, pick-up truck bed, shop, garage, roof-top, chimney... the fuckin nuts are everywhere here!
when I say crunch time- I mean it!
JMHO-

Stellar

Stellar, are you from Michigan?

Squirrels are suicidal.

Every year in the Fall in Michigan there are squirrels dead on the side of the road.

But not in that number in one spot.

Maybe the Michigan squirrels were planning a pre-emptive attack on the Illinois Squirrels.

This is pretty strange.

Deck~

From the news stories, it makes it sound like the squirrels were trying to swim across Lake Michigan, which would be totally bizarre, but it makes sense if they drowned trying to swim the Grand River and were carried on down to where it empties into Lake Michigan.

The Grand River is big enough that a squirrel would be extremely lucky to make it across, as probably would many people. The one mention of people seeing squirrels swimming in the river is important. This is NOT normal squirrel behavior.

I live something like fifty miles south of there. Acorn production was highly weird this summer with most trees not bearing much and those that did bearing months early. Walnuts are almost non-existent this year. Beech nuts are way down.

Something else strange about this is that fox squirrels are not that populous compared to grey squirrels. Around me, there are probably fifty grey squirrels for every fox squirrel. As far as I know, they both eat the same food.

The squirrel population goes up and down anyway, but this mass drowning is pretty weird, even if it has happened before.

any up dates?

no dead animals washing up our beaches up here near harbor springs to the mackinaw bridge, sounds localized to me

last year we also had plenty of pine cones all over the the back. Squirrels gathered them all up in piles at the bases of the trees and stashed them in other places too.
None this year.
Wierd I have noticed a emergence of gray squirels around here too! (funny none last year).
Update , noticed a lot of activity with the crows around dusk. Lots of them gathering together again.