Bird flu hits world’s biggest wandering albatross colonies

CAPE TOWN – A fast spreading form of bird flu is devastating colonies where almost half of the world’s wandering albatrosses breed on a remote island group halfway between South Africa and Antarctica.

High pathogenicity avian influenza,

or HPAI, H5N1 virus has been confirmed to be found on South Africa’s Marion Island after samples were shipped back to the mainland, the country’s environment department said in a statement on March 23. 

Of the 1,900 wandering albatross chicks born on the island in 2024, some 150 have died and adult brown skuas, king penguins, giant petrels and sooty albatrosses have also been affected, according to the department. Marion Island and neighbouring Prince Edward Island are one of the world’s premier seabird conservation sites, with millions of birds, representing 31 species, breeding on the islands. 

“The deaths of adult seabirds are of greater concern than chicks, because most species only start to breed at three to 10 years of age, and most affected species raise at most one chick per year,” the department said. “Efforts to monitor, and hopefully limit, the spread of the virus on the island will continue.”

HPAI has spread around the world since 2021, killing both domestic and wild birds as well as infecting some other species. It was detected in October 2023 in South Georgia, which lies south-east of South America, arrived in Antarctica in February 2024, and the first suspected case on Marion Island was found in a brown skua in September. The two islands are uninhabited aside from researchers.

The wandering albatross has the largest wingspan of any bird and they are famed for following ships. There are thought to be about 25,000 of them globally. 

The outbreak is the latest threat to birds on Marion Island, which is also the site of the world’s biggest mouse-eradication project. Mice eat both adult birds and hatchlings. BLOOMBERG