Unprecedented ecological disaster strikes Argentina: Bird flu wipes out nearly all young sea elephants on Valdés Peninsula
95 percent of the young sea elephants born last year on the Valdés Peninsula succumbed to massive outbreaks of bird flu, leading to an estimated death of as many as 17,000 animals.
7:51 AM EST, January 23, 2024
The bird flu outbreak has been officially confirmed by Argentina's animal health service, SENASA, evoking grave concerns among ecologists and scientists. "This could represent one of the most significant ecological disasters of our time," they caution.
News of the virus's potential to transfer between mammals has spurred alarm among scientists. Wildlife conservation researcher Claudio Campagna from the Wildlife Conservation Society, an expert on mass extinctions, voiced his concerns.
"I started working with these animals in the 70s and I've never witnessed anything like this before. No one has seen anything of this magnitude," he disclosed with palpable distress during a conversation with Live Science.
Data was collected from three distinct areas along the Valdés Peninsula, spanning approximately 310 miles of coastline. "We saw around 18,000 newborns in 2022, which means practically the entire birth rate has been wiped out," explains Campagna.
Complete research detailing how the bird flu virus impacts adult sea elephants is still lacking. However, several such deaths have been documented in the studied region.
The mass mortality of young sea elephants could have a lasting effect on the population. As sea elephants typically reach sexual maturity between three and six years, the colony's numbers might sharply decline by 2026-2027.
