Australia is (has?) pulling all research scientists off Macquarie Island due to worries about the potential stress of thousands of seals dying en-mass:

But once it arrives, up to 90 percent of baby elephant seals could perish, as happened on Heard Island over summer, when 13,000 pups died from bird flu.

https://no.lastname.nz/post/3705660

I fear this flu season will be horrible for people too. Poor bears :(

Not like we’re leaving them much habitat to live on anyway.

Great. Plague bears. Didn’t have that on the 2026 bingo card…