Bird flu has wiped out half of South Georgia\u2019s breeding elephant seals, according to a study that warns of \u201cserious implications\u201d for the future of the species.<\/p>\n
The remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean is home to the world\u2019s largest southern elephant seal population. Researchers estimate 53,000 females died after bird flu hit in 2023.<\/p>\n
The population has now plummeted by 47%, researchers found. \u201cIt was quite a stark number,\u201d said the lead author, Connor Bamford from the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. \u201cI didn\u2019t anticipate it to be this high.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2024, tourists on cruise ships said the explorer Ernest Shackleton\u2019s grave had become inaccessible<\/a> to visitors due to \u201cdead seals blocking the way\u201d. But Bamford said it was likely that many dead animals were never seen, having returned to the sea when they were sick to cool down.<\/p>\n It is possible that direct losses from bird flu have been exacerbated by females becoming physically stressed and abandoning their pups.<\/p>\n Drone footage of a wide bay with a low plain from the shore and snowy mountains in the background<\/a>St Andrews Bay on South Georgia, which has one of the largest colonies of southern elephant seals and king penguins<\/p>\n \u201cWe were aware there was a high level of mortality \u2013 way above normal levels \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t until we got this before-and-after comparison that we could see how extensive it was,\u201d said Bamford. In the long term, he said, it would have a \u201cdramatic impact on the population\u201d.<\/p>\n The island in the South Atlantic is home to 54% of the global breeding population<\/a> of elephant seals. The team used aerial imagery from three beaches to compare the breeding population from 2022 relative to 2024, according to the paper<\/a>, published in the journal Communications Biology.<\/p>\n There was a particularly high level of mortality among pups, and females take three to eight years to start breeding.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my colleagues is down there on a ship at the moment, and this year the count is lower than it was last year. That suggests the virus is circulating in the population,\u201d said Bamford. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s over at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Elephant seals stricken with avian flu at one of South Georgia\u2019s largest colonies. Experts believe many seals will have died at sea and their bodies were never seen. Photograph: Springer Nature<\/p>\n Research suggests bird flu is continuing to spread<\/a> across bird and mammal species in the Antarctic.<\/p>\n \u201cThe apparent loss of nearly half the breeding female population has serious implications for \u2026 the future stability of the population,\u201d researchers said in the paper. \u201cThese findings highlight the urgent need for continued, intensive monitoring.\u201d<\/p>\n The current, highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu was initially detected in Europe, before spreading across the Americas. It reached South Georgia in 2023<\/a>, but its impact took time to calculate because the islands are so remote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe results of this study are heartbreaking,\u201d said Prof Ed Hutchinson, a virologist at the University of Glasgow, who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is unclear how severe the impact of this virus will be on the other mammal and bird species in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic,\u201d he said. \u201cAll we can do is to wait and watch.<\/p>\n \u201cH5N1 has already had devastating impacts on ecosystems across the world, from seabird colonies in the UK to sea lions in South America. We will soon find out what it will mean for the Antarctic.\u201d<\/p>\n Find more age of extinction coverage here<\/a>, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston<\/a> and Patrick Greenfield<\/a> in the Guardian app for more nature coverage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bird flu has wiped out half of South Georgia\u2019s breeding elephant seals, according to a study that warns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-138410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}