A number of Japanese citizens living in the Ishikawa Prefecture have made some strange observations during the last few days.

Nanao, Japan, June 4

During the evening of June 4, a man suddenly heard a plopping sound in a parking lot of the Nakajima citizens centre in Nanao. When he looked back, he was surprised to see tadpoles scattered over a car and on the ground. According to Kiwamu Funakura, 36, an official at the centre who went to the parking lot at the time, about 100 tadpoles, each 2 or 3 centimetres long, were scattered over an area measuring about 200 square meters.

Hakusan, Japan, June 6

Two days later and roughly 70 kilometres southwest of Nanao, a similar event occurred in another parking lot. In the morning of June 6, between 20 and 30 dead tadpoles were found on a car windshield and other places in a Hakusan parking lot, with some reportedly having lost their original shape.

Nanao, Japan, June 8

Back in Nano, Takeshi Kakiuchi, 62, a member of the Nanao Municipal Assembly, found six tadpoles on his car and on the ground around his home Monday morning. Kakiuchi’s home is located roughly 4 km from the Nakajima citizens centre.

Nakanotomachi, Japan, June 9

On Tuesday evening, Yukio Oumi, 78, found 13 fish on the back of his truck and on the ground around his home in Nakanotomachi. The fish are believed to be crucian carps, each measuring about 3 centimetres.

Fish and frogs falling from the sky?

The reason behind the strange events has not yet been determined, and the Kanazawa Local Meteorological Observatory says it has no information that any tornadoes occurred on the days when the animals appeared.

Susumu Aiba, professor at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology, says that small-scale wind gusts may have swept over limited areas, swirling up water and any creatures living in it. If the gusts were small enough, they may have been able to avoid meteorological detection.

Another suggestion comes from Kimimasa Tokikuni, the head of the Ishikawa prefectural branch of the Japanese Society for Preservation of Birds. “Birds such as herons or umineko that had these tadpoles in their mouths or gorges might have dropped them because they were startled by something while flying,” he says. All the places where animals seem to have fallen from the sky during the last few days are located in close vicinity to flooded rice paddies, so birds may have caught tadpoles and small fish there in an attempt to feed their young. Herons and other water fowl are in the middle of their breeding period right now.

The Suffolk Police has decided to call off their investigation into the mysterious disappearance of 27 koi and seven goldfish, since the culprit turned out to be a hungry heron.

When the expensive fish disappeared from their home in Carlton Colville, UK, the police suspected human thieves and promptly issued a witness appeal which asked if locals had seen “anything suspicious” or if they had been offered similar fish. The appeal was however recalled soon, as the police found out the true identity of the perpetrator.

A further statement issued by police explained: “This incident is now being attributed to a large heron.”
“We take all incidents very seriously and we were worried that someone might have made off with fish worth thousands of pounds”, a police spokesman explains. “Thankfully, on this occasion an arrest wasn’t necessary.”