At the far edge of the inhabited world, where seabirds outnumber people by millions to one, a virus is moving through the Southern Ocean with the indifference of weather. Australia has chosen to withdraw its researchers from Macquarie Island before H5N1 arrives with the spring breeding season, having already watched tens of thousands of seal pups die on Heard Island. Seven hundred kilometres away, New Zealand's subantarctic islands shelter species found nowhere else on Earth — including nearly the entire world population of the southern royal albatross — and no one will reach them until the pu
Australia evacuates Macquarie Island staff as H5N1 threatens New Zealand's subantarctic wildlife
Potential mass mortality of critically endangered wildlife including New Zealand sea lions (nationally endangered, breeding numbers declining) and unique albatross and seabird species found nowhere else on Earth.