In a further red flag for penguin populations in Antarctica, a new report reveals that hundreds of elephants seals have been found dead. While on the surface the two trends may seem unrelated, the chair of the Antarctic Wildlife Health Network, Dr. Meagan Dewar, told The Guardian on Friday that “at some sites we’ve had mass mortalities, where we are getting into the hundreds” when it comes to elephant seal populations. Then came the stinger: “There is a likely chance it could be avian influenza,” colloquially known as bird flu.
Avian flu has already been confirmed at eight testing sites across the Antarctic, with twenty other site results still pending at the time of this writing. Observers in the Antarctic have reported elephant seals displaying avian flu symptoms including coughing, mucus accumulations around their noses and breathing difficulties. Birds with avian flu suffer from spasms, lethargy and an inability to fly. The virus has already killed over 500,000 seabirds and over 20,000 sea lions in Chile and Peru, and experts are concerned that it could have a catastrophic effect on Antarctic penguin colonies if it reaches them.
This is not the first sign that avian flu is going to reach Earth’s southernmost continent. In October a report by the British Antarctic Survey confirmed the avian flu’s existence near Antarctica on Bird Island in the South Georgia region, particularly afflicting a species of bird known as the brown skua. In their report, the British Antarctic Survey highlighted the risk to a wide range of local bird populations.
“There are species on some of the Antarctic islands and sub-Antarctic islands that are unique to those islands, and only occur in small numbers, in hundreds or thousands,” Thijs Kuiken from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study, told New Scientist. “If the virus reaches those populations, they are in threat of extinction.”
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
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We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
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