![\"Holly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3a21ade19e83efa5d41c479a92cf48548b357bb6.png\")
Save<\/p>\nSave<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Endangered sea lions living along Western Australia\u2019s coastline are under the threat of extinction, scientists warn, as concern grows over two confirmed cases of the highly contagious bird flu<\/a>.<\/p>\n Several environment groups have called on the federal government to establish an additional fund for national wildlife resilience \u2013 $200 million over the next two years \u2013 to help protect the estimated 12,000 Australia sea lions remaining in the wild, and other species, from the disease.<\/p>\n Until the two confirmed cases \u2013 one in a giant petrel and the other in a brown skua, both found near Esperance \u2013 mainland Australia and New Zealand were the only places on earth free from the virus.<\/p>\n Australian Marine Conservation Society campaigns director Alexia Wellbelove said bird flu\u2019s spread posed a real extinction risk to Australian sea lions, pointing to other instances globally where it had \u201ccaused carnage\u201d.<\/p>\n In South America, 30,000 sea lion pups died in just six months, and more than 13,000 elephant seal pups on Heard Island, about 4000 kilometres south-west of Perth, died in late 2025 and early 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cThis news is an alarming confirmation that Australia is not immune to the threats of bird flu \u2013 it is news we have been expecting but hoping not to receive,\u201d Wellbelove said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is \u2026 the potential for this virus to be catastrophic for Australia\u2019s unique wildlife and threatened species.<\/p>\n \u201cMarine mammal populations have been decimated by H5 bird flu and with the virus now having arrived on Australia\u2019s mainland, it is time to take greater action to protect our wildlife populations.\u201d<\/p>\n Wellbelove said it was \u201cessential that preparedness plans are put into place urgently to protect this and other threatened marine species\u201d.<\/p>\n But she also said more was needed, pointing to the calls for a $200 million funding boost.<\/p>\n Related Article Invasive Species Council policy director Carol Booth said the funding would be a \u201cno-regrets investment\u201d for the federal government.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a genuine wildlife emergency, and it must be treated as such with emergency funding to increase efforts to protect wildlife populations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n On Monday, the nation\u2019s chief veterinary officer Beth Cookson said while there was currently no indication the disease had spread to other populations, there had been a lift in the number of reports coming through the emergency animal disease hotline.<\/p>\n She said she had been advised by WA\u2019s chief veterinary officer Michelle Rodan there were no indications of mass mortality in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would expect a baseline level of deaths in wild populations at any time,\u201d Cookson said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do now, in the early days of the investigation, is to understand that what\u2019s being reported through the public hotline is associated with that normal baseline, or whether there has been any indication of spread.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no information that would suggest that there is a suspect laboratory result or a situation of multiple mass mortalities that would indicate a high level of suspicion, that\u2019s all I can say at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n Cookson said authorities were prioritising the investigation of the two reported birds to see whether there was any evidence the disease had spread to other susceptible species.<\/p>\n \u201cSo far, we don\u2019t have any indication that it has spread to other populations, but that\u2019s the first step that we need to take to establish whether these two individual migratory seabirds that have tested positive have been able to spread it to other birds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Bird Life Australia has also requested a $200 million fund.<\/p>\n Its director and ornithologist Mandy Bamford told Radio 6PR the two detected cases were in birds that had likely migrated from Heard Island or Antarctica.<\/p>\n She said the total seal population on Heard Island had been 17,000, with just 4000 now remaining, so the mortality rate was high.<\/p>\n \u201cSeals are particularly susceptible so terribly, terribly sad,\u201d Bamford said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re they\u2019re all on the beach next to each other. It\u2019s a particular problem with these colonially nesting species, like colonial birds, but also mammals.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re they\u2019re all around each other, they\u2019re they\u2019re drinking out of the same water, and they might scavenge on dead things along the shore, but it\u2019s mostly proximity, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n Aside from Australian sea lions, \u201cour black swans are very much at risk, and a number of our other waterbirds including pelicans,\u201d Bamford said.<\/p>\n She said Esperance was isolated, which was a good thing for wildlife and poultry farms, with chickens also highly susceptible \u2013 but it was also a disadvantage as detecting cases was harder.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found two birds, but it\u2019s a very remote coastline so that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s the only two birds \u2013 that\u2019s the question that we\u2019re watching for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Related Article WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis said there were currently no signs of mortalities among the state\u2019s black swan population.<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone saw a sick or dead black swan, we would encourage them to report it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a vaccine available that can be used, but can only obviously be used in contained environments.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are certainly plans in place, whether it\u2019s with black swan or little penguins or other birds that are of high value to West Australians.<\/p>\n \u201cIt might be that we have colonies that we protect in a sanctuary zone.\u201d<\/p>\n Jarvis said CSIRO was working on vaccines, but as yet they haven\u2019t been tested on all Australian wildlife.<\/p>\n \u201cAny vaccine will usually take two doses, which is why it can\u2019t be used on a broad scale,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be really clear: we will not be using vaccines on a large scale for wildlife. It\u2019s just simply not possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Endangered](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/32b9bbcc9b5ffa43d2ac3fed03799968b915e712.jpeg\")
Endangered Australian sea lions could be at risk of catching bird flu, experts warn. Australian Marine Conservation Society<\/p>\n![\"Minister](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/aca05b7d935a595083a2a694ac04faf40b3f35c9.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4705b5ae86437e2c4b08279534d74a973bc5e174f79fad463944d8632004fbd0.jpeg\")
A giant petral found near Esperance, on WA\u2019s southern coast, was the second confirmed case of H5N1 avian influenza – or, bird flu. Esperance Wildlife Hospital and Sanctuary<\/p>\n![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/c2060248bfd2bda96a8c8724b286fd4ea16fd33c.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Holly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3a21ade19e83efa5d41c479a92cf48548b357bb6.png\")
Holly Thompson<\/a> is a journalist with WAtoday, specialising in education and the environment.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-754314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}