Aflockalypse

Name for occurrences of sudden mass animal deaths provoking comparisons to a cataclysmic event such as the 'Apocalypse'. Incidents starting on Dec 31 2010 with thousands of red-winged blackbirds dropping from the skies over Beebe, Arkansas, USA received widespread attention from the public and media. Dead birds, dead fish, crabs and other mass animal deaths, not uncommon, but not usually widely reported, became a source of alarm in the public eye, mainly due to the usually unexplained reason for the deaths. Term coined by Washington Post writer Melissa Bell in an article covering the deaths being reported across the United States and Europe in early January 2011.