00:02Inspecting the carnage of mass bird deaths in South Australia,
00:06locals fearing what's to come.
00:08I'm sick of bloody disasters.
00:09We had the fires six years ago where half the island was burnt out.
00:14Then we had COVID.
00:16Then we had algal bloom.
00:18Now we've got bird flu.
00:20I don't want any more.
00:22Two small islands known as the Pages where many of the deaths occurred.
00:26Remote land masses about halfway between KI and the SA mainland.
00:30The third mass event was on Truebridge Island off York Peninsula.
00:34We've kept trying to get some information.
00:37Sort of there hasn't been information it seems really to come out from it.
00:42I think the state government has done more than almost any other in the country
00:46in terms of making sure that we make as much information available in and around bird flu.
00:51A little penguin found sick at this beach at Destries Bay on Kangaroo Island's southeast coast
00:56is being tested for the H5 strain.
00:58It sparked fears the disease has spread to the fragile population,
01:02which hit a record low in 2024.
01:05Numbers have since bounced back to about 700.
01:07But locals remain worried about the impact the bird flu could have
01:11on one of the island's premier tourist attractions.
01:13Worst case scenario is we lose a lot of penguins, if not all of them.
01:17So what that means for us as a business, we don't know yet.
01:22Concerns echoed by researchers 65 kilometres away,
01:26bracing for the impact on the Granite Island penguin population.
01:29We've always known in the background that we were due
01:32and it often is the first wave that's going to be really tough.
01:37Imminent test results are expected to confirm suspicions bird flu is behind the mass deaths.
01:42Hopefully in the background we have a group of eyes.
01:43Let's see.
01:44What is the sun that we have a little bit of?
01:44The fog was the sun that I've made for many years.
01:44We hope the sun and the sun of the sun are now,
01:44so the sun is down the beautiful sun.
01:44Now the sun that is young.
01:44This morn behavior is the sun.
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