More than 13,000 baby seals have been killed by a bird flu strain on a remote sub-Antarctic island, painting a sobering picture of the spread of the disease.
H5 bird flu was detected for the first time in October on Australia's World Heritage-listed Heard Island, which sits some 4000km southwest of Perth.
Mainland Australia is free of the strain, which is present on all other continents and has devastated bird and animal populations.
Scientists who visited Heard Island estimated 13,359 southern elephant seal pups have died from the disease out of a total population of 17,364 - 76 per cent.
Their study, published in scientific journal BioRxiv on Wednesday, says the figure could be even worse as deaths were ongoing when their observations finished.
