(Image source: Daily Mail)

BY TRACY PFEIFFER
 

You're watching multisource global video news analysis from Newsy.

Ever since thousands of red-winged blackbirds dropped dead in Beebe, Arkansas on New Year’s Eve, apocalyptic conspiracy theories have been spinning. But now- the plot thickens- with at least a dozen similar incidents reported around the globe.  

BBC: 40,000 dead devil crabs washed ashore in Kent, England

BBC: Dozens of jackdaws fell dead on a street in Sweden.

World Fishing & Aquaculture: 150 tons of farmed red tilapia died in Vietnam...

CNN: And an estimated 2 million fish washed up on the shores of Chesapeake Bay.

So is it the end of the world? Scientists say no, but it seems they can’t convince everyone. A writer on Examiner explores the end-of-days prophecies from Nostradamus, who wrote about the reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles in his 2012 predictions.

“...scientists say that the poles have shifted before and do so once every 250,000 years. Some scientists believe we are in the middle of this transition right now … Could the shifting of the poles be something that is causing the dead birds and dead fish around the globe?”

And Australia’s Daily Telegraph points to another version of the world’s end -- the Christians’ Rapture, which one “Bible decoder” says will occur May 21, 2011.

Meanwhile, scientists have come up with plenty of explanations and theories for the incidents. For example, an American wildlife disease expert tells PBS, over the last two decades there have been 16 documented cases of large numbers of blackbirds dying in specific areas.

But if these are common occurrences, what gives with the collective freak out? A blogger for the Baltimore Sun says the culprit is right in front of us -- the Internet, which has allowed news of these mass animal deaths to spread like wildfire.

“As journalists, we're in the business of connecting dots, so I understand the tendency. We live for unmasking previously unnoticed, slowly developing trends and hidden, nefarious plots. But sometimes, a series of similar events is just a coincidence, not conspiracy.”

To see a map of reported mass animal deaths across the globe, check out the link in our transcript section.

Get more multisource global video news analysis from Newsy.

Transcript by Newsy.