Since H5 fowl flu arrived in Portland, Victoria, the scenario has been “fairly grim” with many lifeless and struggling birds on the seaside, and the dilemma of how you can get rid of the carcasses, in accordance with native resident Lynn Murrell.
However because the first confirmed case in a fur seal on Sunday at Beachport, South Australia – a two-hour journey over the border – folks have been nervous for his or her native “pet seal”, referred to as Sammy.
“He’s an amazing vacationer attraction. The locals love him. So, we’d hate to see him get the flu,” Murrell, the president of the Southwest Surroundings Alliance, a coalition of native atmosphere teams, stated.
The male southern elephant seal had “sort of adopted the city”, frequenting the foreshore and port, and typically the group gardens. In current weeks, the seal has been noticed close to birds presumed to have died from H5N1.
Victoria’s first fowl flu case was detected within the city, within the far south-west of the state, on the finish of July. Since then, the realm has turn out to be a hotspot, with 17 confirmed occasions in crested terns, magpies, silver gulls and ravens, in accordance with the federal agriculture department, and plenty of extra suspected circumstances.
Folks had been involved in regards to the carcasses, and the chance of the virus spreading because of scavengers consuming them. Some have estimated 30 to 40 new sick and dying birds on the seaside a day.
A spokesperson for Glenelg shire council stated the scenario was distressing for a lot of in the neighborhood. They stated the state authorities’s recommendation was to go away the lifeless birds in place, though council had begun eradicating some the place “unacceptable public amenity or security dangers have been recognized”.
Prof Rob Harcourt, at Macquarie College, stated elephant seals like Sammy had been “characters” and “probably the most gregarious animals you’ve ever seen”, which defined why communities named them.
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Together with Sammy, an everyday customer to Portland, and Neil in Tasmania, many others had gained notoriety, together with Humphrey, a three-tonne superstar who frequented New Zealand coastal cities within the Eighties.
Southern elephant seals breed in massive colonies, particularly on Macquarie Island, Harcourt stated. However as a result of they’re so massive and wish numerous meals, they disperse broadly to feed, migrating over 1,000 kilometres.
They’re sturdy swimmers, however on land they “transfer alongside like caterpillars,” he stated.
Seals and sea lions typically share areas with wild birds, inserting them at risk of infection from H5 fowl flu. In Victoria, greater than 100 marine mammals have been reported to the emergency animal illness hotline this month, though none up to now have been confirmed as constructive circumstances.
Seals had been additionally susceptible as a result of they’re “thigmotactic”, Harcourt stated, which implies they like to lie touching one another. They recognised each other by way of “nasal trade”. “They sniff one another’s faces”, he stated; “moms recognise their pups by touching noses”.
Southern elephant seals, listed as susceptible below federal atmosphere legal guidelines, had been at “very excessive danger” of H5 fowl flu, in accordance with a nationwide evaluation. The lethal pressure killed more than 13,000 pups on Heard Island in 2025 and 2026.
Australian sea lions, listed as endangered, had been a particular concern given their low numbers. “Sea lions are just like the labradors of the ocean. They’re pleasant and playful, and so they’re curious,” Harcourt stated. “I will likely be completely and totally devastated if we lose them.”
With so many birds struggling, volunteer wildlife carers from western Victoria travelled to Portland final weekend, in a bid to humanely euthanise birds, which had been being left to die gradual, painful deaths.
“This can be a Band-Help over a bleeding wound,” David Mould from the Victorian Wildlife Alliance stated. “This isn’t an answer. This can be a couple of volunteers choosing up the slack of what needs to be a serious authorities operation.”
“The decline is speedy. These birds can’t fly. They’ve neurological signs,” he stated. “They lose their means to stroll, and so they begin staggering round having seizures. You see them with their wings splayed out to assist them off the bottom, till they lose even the power to do this.”
