H5 bird flu spreads to dolphins as Australia evacuates Antarctic researchers over mass seal death fears

A common dolphin found dead on South Australia's coast has tested positive for H5N1, marking the virus's quiet but consequential expansion into a second native mammal species — a reminder that pathogens do not observe the boundaries we draw around ecosystems. Thousands of kilometres south, Australia has made the rare decision to evacuate 24 researchers from Macquarie Island not because the virus has arrived there, but because of what it might do to the elephant seals who breed beside the station each spring. In this moment, the country is grappling with a form of risk that is as much psycholog