Bird flu kills more than 75% of baby seals on remote Australian island, study finds
Key takeaways
- Heard and Mc Donald Islands, about 4,000 km (2,485 miles) south-west of Australia, are home to over one million breeding seabirds and seals.
- They also found higher than expected deaths in penguin populations.
- Australia is the only continent with no cases of the H5N1 strain which has spread among birds worldwide and affected some mammals.
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Lana Lam Sydney Getty Images Thousands of seal pups were killed by bird flu on two remote Australian islands Bird flu has killed thousands of southern elephant seal pups on remote Antarctic islands belonging to Australia, new research has shown.
Heard and Mc Donald Islands, about 4,000 km (2,485 miles) south-west of Australia, are home to over one million breeding seabirds and seals.
Scientists, using data from last October and this January, estimate about 13,000 baby seals from a group of 17,000 on Heard Island were killed by the H5N1 strain of bird flu since last August, more than 75% of the entire group. They also found higher than expected deaths in penguin populations.