The Australian government is evacuating 24 researchers from its Macquarie Island research station (a remote sub-Antarctic outpost some 1,500km south-east of Tasmania) due to the psychological toll they could face witnessing a mass die-off of elephant seals during the approaching breeding season. Although H5N1 avian influenza has not yet been detected on the island, expert assessments predict a high likelihood of a significant mortality event, given the large elephant seal colonies that breed close to the station buildings — a situation that recalls the more than 13,000 seal pup deaths recorded on Australia's Heard Island in 2025 and 2026. Separately, a common dolphin found dead near Goolwa on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula has tested positive for H5N1, making it the second native mammal species in Australia known to have contracted the virus and raising fresh concern about the disease's spread among marine wildlife.