On Tuesday, several of 140 dead tilapia that zoo staff couldn’t save were still scattered on the muddy, wet floor of the giraffe and hippo building. Six piranhas and at least two of the zoo’s 12 peacocks also died in the flooding.Tilapia and piranhas are fish! How on earth do fish die in a flood???
It says they're scattered on the floor, which suggests that the water receded and left them behind. Is that normal? Does that mean that fish in the ocean have to follow the water when the tides move? Why didn't the force of the water pull them along?
In any case, you can't just mention in passing that fish died in a flood and not explain. It's a great big question mark, even if it's not nearly as exciting as rescuing giraffes from hippo-infested waters.
6 comments:
It's not normal for fish, obviously, but it's typical for flooding. It's what you said, the water recedes and leaves them behind.
The fish also might be choking because the water is so full of mud and silt, so they can't swim properly. They're dying or maybe even dead by the time the flood waters deposit them.
I don't know about tides.
Saltwater fish would die in the freshwater. Polluted and silty freshwater would not have enough oxygen in it. Most fish are sensitive to water temperature fluctuations and some can die of shock if temps are just a few degrees higher or lower than the fish like. Waters can recede and leave them stranded. Sheer force of the water can cause physical injury. Their food source could be taken away and/ or not provided. Predators and prey could come into contact. Pollutants in the water can be toxic. Those are just some of the ways ....
Oh yeah, saltwater/freshwater! I didn't think of that. And water temperature, that's huge. It's one of the reasons climate change impacts fish and other sea and river creatures so much.
The thing is, tilapia and piranha are both freshwater.
But in the interim I read another article where it said that the water was dirty/polluted, because the water these fishies usually live in is filtered, like an aquarium. Don't know why they didn't mention that in this article and instead left this giant WTF!
I still don't understand how it's possible for the water to recede and leave the fish behind though - that seems like it would be like the wind failing to move the clouds! The fish should have washed away with the flood.
Or maybe some of them did. maybe there are piranhas swimming around in the rivers and sewers of Calgary this very minute!
That would be kind of cool, if they could adapt.
I think if the fish were unable to get enough oxygen or unable to swim properly or both, because the water is so full of mud and silt, they are not going to make it back with receding flood waters. They could be dead or nearly so already.
Your "journalism wanted" posts are always good. Writers are usually on word lengths, so they can't explain everything they want to. And of course many are untrained, or completely overloaded trying to make a living selling stories, so they don't anticipate questions and dig deeper.
I was actually thinking about word count, but in this one particular example I quoted they could have taken the colour out and put in that additional fact. "140 tilapia and six piranhas also died due to unfiltered water" does the job, and leaves you a few words to play with.
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