Every spring, 200,000+ northern gannets journey to the eastern Canada coast to breed in enormous colonies. In May 2022, as females readied to lay eggs, birds began dying in droves. “Thousands started washing on our shores.”
The culprit: a bird flu virus, known as H5N1, that had recently arrived in North America. Over the months that followed, the virus raced through the region, killing tens of thousands of northern gannets. The carnage was “devastating,” Dr. Avery-Gomm said. “You have to harden your heart to work on this scale of mortality.”
But for the world’s wild birds, the prospect of a deadly, uncontained outbreak is not theoretical. The virus has already decimated avian populations globally, with body counts that can be staggering: an estimated 24,000 Cape cormorants killed in South Africa, 57,000+ pelicans reported dead in Peru.
“The mortality scale is truly unprecedented. There’s nothing comparable historically.” Wild birds are poorly monitored, & the true global toll and long-term consequences unknown. But it’s clear the virus is an unwelcome new climate change danger including habitat loss, overfishing & human activities
Since Oct 2021, 117,000+ dead wild birds — from 315 species in 79 countries — have been reported to World Organization for Animal Health. Because many are never detected, let alone reported, the true scope is likely much larger — what could be the biggest threat to wild birds “in a generation.”
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Every spring, 200,000+ northern gannets journey to the eastern Canada coast to breed in enormous colonies. In May 2022, as females readied to lay eggs, birds began dying in droves. “Thousands started washing on our shores.”
The culprit: a bird flu virus, known as H5N1, that had recently arrived in North America. Over the months that followed, the virus raced through the region, killing tens of thousands of northern gannets. The carnage was “devastating,” Dr. Avery-Gomm said. “You have to harden your heart to work on this scale of mortality.”
But for the world’s wild birds, the prospect of a deadly, uncontained outbreak is not theoretical. The virus has already decimated avian populations globally, with body counts that can be staggering: an estimated 24,000 Cape cormorants killed in South Africa, 57,000+ pelicans reported dead in Peru.
“The mortality scale is truly unprecedented. There’s nothing comparable historically.” Wild birds are poorly monitored, & the true global toll and long-term consequences unknown. But it’s clear the virus is an unwelcome new climate change danger including habitat loss, overfishing & human activities
Since Oct 2021, 117,000+ dead wild birds — from 315 species in 79 countries — have been reported to World Organization for Animal Health. Because many are never detected, let alone reported, the true scope is likely much larger — what could be the biggest threat to wild birds “in a generation.”
Abridged (shortened) article [https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3lda6jxkf2c2l](https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3lda6jxkf2c2l)