Up to two in five of the little penguins at a colony in Australia’s Melbourne could die if H5 bird flu reaches the beach suburb, according to the volunteers who monitor them, days after Australia confirmed its first mass die-off of wildlife from the virus.
About 1,400 little penguins nest in the rocks of the breakwater at St Kilda where crowds gather at dusk to watch the birds come ashore. Little penguins are the smallest of the world's penguin species, standing about 30cm tall, and Victoria holds most of the Australian population, including the larger colony on Phillip Island.
