(Reuters) – Has bird flu already killed hundreds, if not thousands of penguins in Antarctica?
Researchers are investigating after a scientific expedition discovered 532 dead Adelie penguins, with potentially thousands more deceased, according to Federation University Australia.
The suspicion is that the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus is responsible for the penguin deaths, although initial field tests were inconclusive, the university reported. Samples are now being sent to labs in hopes of finding definitive answers in the near future.
Concern exists among scientists that the highly fatal H5N1 influenza could devastate endangered penguin species and other wildlife in the remote southern continent.
Since reaching South America in 2022, the disease has spread more aggressively in wildlife than ever before, eventually making its way to Antarctica, where the first case of H5N1 was confirmed in February.
“This has the potential to have a massive impact on wildlife that is already being impacted by things like climate change and other environmental stresses,” said Meagan Dewar, a wildlife biologist with Federation University who participated in the recent expedition.
Dewar explained that the dead Adelie penguins were discovered frozen solid in sub-zero temperatures and buried under snow on Heroina Island.
Although the researchers were unable to count all the carcasses on the large island, they estimate that several thousand penguins died at some point in the previous weeks or months.
Heroina Island is home to approximately 280,000 breeding pairs of Adelie penguins annually. By the time the expedition arrived, the live penguins had already moved on after finishing their breeding season, Dewar noted.
During the expedition, Dewar’s team identified the presence of the H5 strain of bird flu on the Antarctic peninsula and three neighboring islands in skua seabirds, which prey on penguin eggs and chicks.
According to the British Antarctic Survey, around 20 million pairs of penguins breed in Antarctica each year, including emperor penguins, which experts fear could be on the brink of extinction by the end of the century due to dwindling sea ice caused by climate change. In 2022, melting sea ice led to the deaths of thousands of emperor penguin chicks.
Now, emperor penguins may face the additional threat of deadly bird flu, Dewar warned.
“There is now the potential that emperor penguins could be affected come springtime next year,” she added.
(Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Sandra Maler)
