In another in a bizarre series of international animal die-offs, thousands of gizzard shad have been turning up dead along the Chicago lakefront in recent days.

The three- to five-inch fish, members of the herring family, were dying in droves, frozen in chunks of ice or simply going belly-up in open water.

The fish die-off has turned the local ecosystem somewhat topsy-turvy, as Canada geese and mallards have been swooping in to the cold Lake Michigan waters to prey on the dead shad.

Read