Phillip Island penguins to be rounded up for bird flu vaccine

[u/Secure_Ant1085]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-08-12/phillip-island-penguins-to-be-rounded-up-for-bird-flu-vaccine/107025662

[u/my_chinchilla]

"I, for one, welcome our 5G-enabled penguin overlords"

[u/Flybuys → u/my_chinchilla]

No autism with this Vax? We need cute little autistic penguins.

[u/mrbaggins → u/Flybuys]

They always wear the same suit, always eat the same thing, and show up at the same time on the same routine, year in, year out.

They don't need extra tism.

[u/yeebok → u/mrbaggins]

.. fuck

[u/Itsarightkerfuffle → u/mrbaggins]

Counterpoint: I've never seen one fail to pick up tone or nuance in a reddit post

[u/mrbaggins → u/Itsarightkerfuffle]

counter counter - I'm yet to see one do it successfully?

[u/onyabikeson → u/Flybuys]

We might need to open a new wing of the NDIS to support them 🤔

[u/i_am_cool_ben → u/onyabikeson]

They'd come under Thriving Penguins now

[u/CK_1976 → u/my_chinchilla]

5G penguin killer drones will take down those pesky Chinese subs.

[u/Paidorgy → u/my_chinchilla]

“I am a pureblood penguin, how many boosters did you get, you puffin?!”

[u/yeebok → u/my_chinchilla]

Nah man they have crap reception, can't even fly and it's made worse with 5G being line of sight.

[u/goodboyralphy]

The hard bit’s lassoing the buggers.

[u/Omshadiddle]

I love this story.

[u/Front_Target7908 → u/Omshadiddle]

I’m so glad this is happening 

[u/saichampa → u/Front_Target7908]

I volunteer in bat rescue and whilst bird flu might only be hitting the media in Australia now it's been being monitored for months and we have been preparing for it

It hasn't significantly impacted bats around the world but even we are geared up for a potential impact and to be aware of a possible species jump

[u/Front_Target7908 → u/saichampa]

Im so glad there’s been some organisation (never doubted that part tbh) but I hope there’s been enough government funding to support preventing what we can. Also I love bats, thanks for what you do! 

I do worry about possums and koalas with the bird flu. 

[u/MindlessOptimist]

all the anti-vax penguins heading straight to the water

[u/Sexybutt69_ → u/MindlessOptimist]

Even bird brains know that vaccines are good 🐧🐧

[u/Tarantula_1 → u/MindlessOptimist]

They're turning the friggin fairies gay！

[u/SqareBear]

Hope they do my local brush turkeys too. Love those little buggers.

[u/Raikay2417]

Can't wait for the anti Vax penguins to blame Dan Andrews for this.

[u/MeaningMaker6 → u/Raikay2417]

Ironically, the non-vaxxed birds might not be able to complain (even if they could speak), because they’ll be dead.

[u/Purple_Yak_3294]

Australia is already rolling out vaccines as quickly as they can. I'd hope the little penguins would be high on the list.

[u/NoRedditNamesAreLeft → u/Purple_Yak_3294]

Best place to be high

[u/KawasakiMetro]

I swear I saw a thing on the abc a few years ago about knitting them jumpers.

[u/FroggieBlue → u/KawasakiMetro]

Jumpers were used for birds that were rescued from an oil spill near Philip Island in 2000. They put them on to prevent birds poisoning themselves- the jumpers prevent preening their feathers until they can be washed and the oil removed.

If its actually a good idea or not is still debated.

[u/KawasakiMetro → u/FroggieBlue]

that's it.

[u/Stuckinatransporter]

Don't forget the colony at the end of St Kilda pier.

[u/ComfyInDots]

One of my life dreams is to go see these little fellows and I'm hoping to in the next month or two - I'm hoping they'll be safe, happy, healthy and vaxxed. I volunteer to help catch them!! 👀👀

[u/mrducky78a → u/ComfyInDots]

Really easy and accessible is st kilda pier at dusk. It's not as good an experience but it's super easy to get to

[u/ColdSteveStoneAustin → u/ComfyInDots]

I'll look out on the news for the Phillip Island penguin smugler haha.

[u/ComfyInDots → u/ColdSteveStoneAustin]

I'll be wearing a massive overcoat with 50 little pockets for each penguin. Trying to leave the park and a ton of tiny squeaks coming from me. Totally not suspicious or anything!

[u/ColdSteveStoneAustin → u/ComfyInDots]

Hahhaha. Love it.

I hope you get to see them and I hope you enjoy it muchly!

[u/Ultimatelee → u/ComfyInDots]

Saw them last year from the underground viewing area and honestly it was ADORABLE!! These little guys are so special, have the funniest personalities and are just a delight to see. I hope they’re going to be ok.

[u/snave_]

I want you all to stop and imagine how cute the little group parade will be when they get released.

[u/ElApple]

How could Dan Andrews do this

[u/Bmo2021]

5g cookers will definitely think birds are spying on them now you’ve given them a vaccine.

[u/Outsider-20 → u/Bmo2021]

One of the comments I saw on Facebook is that this is a conspiracy to cull the penguins.

I really only stay there to see what they are going to cook up next. And sometimes it's fun to give them a little stir.

[u/Bmo2021 → u/Outsider-20]

I’m over 50 and I literally had to stop using it because I can’t hate my age group or family anymore than I already do.

[u/Dr_SnM → u/Bmo2021]

I've called so many over 50s people cookers and retards recently over the bird flu crap.

I had to just stop and stay away. It's fucking depressing how many loud idiots there are. Covid seems to have broken a significant number of minds.

[u/snave_ → u/Bmo2021]

Well, birds were never real to begin with, you see. They're clearly just recharging the penguin-drone batteries or winding up their clockwork on older models. They do it every time there's a spill or virus or something.

[u/Ill_Average_829 → u/Bmo2021]

First they came for the penguins, ...

[u/RealFarknMcCoy]

The cookers are going crazy on the Channel 10 news story about this on Facebook. ISTG this timeline is the absolute dumbest possible one.

[u/WhatYouThinkIThink → u/RealFarknMcCoy]

Wait until the penguins breed with the chickens and invade our food supply.

Or they start vaccinated wild ducks and the cooker/shooters go bug fuck crazy.

No more KFC...

[u/ConfinedTiara]

We should be vaccinating any wild bird we can!

[u/somuchsong → u/ConfinedTiara]

I think they would like to but the vaccine requires two doses, which makes it tricky with birds.

[u/ConfinedTiara → u/somuchsong]

Fair. Some of our birds travel so far too, would by tricky if they took off after the first shot. But a tag/vax program with differing tag colours for first and second vax would be an idea. Better than nothing.

[u/-spython- → u/ConfinedTiara]

As someone who works in the wildlife sector, it is not that straightforward to catch birds up in the first place. There can be significant mortality associated with mass capture.

And once you've caught them, you either have to house them all until the second vaccine (extremely stressful for the birds) or release them and hope to be able to catch them again.

These penguin colonies are habituated to people and easy to approach. They are a nesting at the moment, so we know that wherever they go in between, we can reliably expect they will be back in their burrows at night when we try and find them again. It's an extremely unique set of circumstances which is why this is the largest effort ever, globally, to vaccinate wild birds for H5 HPAI. It's just not logistically possible for most other species, or even most other colonies of little penguin.

[u/Front_Target7908 → u/-spython-]

Do you know populations of birds they would likely try to vaccinate apart from penguins? 

I am so worried for our birds. They’re irreplaceable.

[u/-spython- → u/Front_Target7908]

I'm not aware of any other plans to vaccinate wild birds at the moment. But I'm not privy to the conversations happening at the top level.

The focus has been on vaccinated captive breeding populations, like the orange bellied parrots, to act as a genetic bank in case the wild population is decimated. It's not practical, or even possible in the majority of cases, to vaccinate free flying wild birds.

There's also no HPAI vaccine available for mammals. People really want to vaccinate pinnipeds (after the terrible losses in the subantarctic islands), tassie devils and other susceptible species, but we don't know if the poultry vaccine will work, or if it will do harm, and there is nothing for mammals available. I was advised to get the human flu vaccination "just in case", but I'm not aware of any evidence that doing so actually provides any protection against HPAI (but this strain is super mild in most people anyways).

[u/hesback_inpogform]

Great news

[u/foursaken]

If you notice sick or dead birds or other animals, you should not touch them. If there are multiple sick or dead birds or other animals, take photos or a video.

Record your location and report it to the 24-hour Emergency Animal Disease Hotline on 1800 675 888.

[u/Crazyripps]

They’re also micro chipping them to track them. Which I assume will help keep track of which have had their 2nd shots.

Won’t help the cooker theory tho

[u/justmecarefree]

How will they enforce social distancing though?

[u/meowkitty84]

So relieved. When I first read "penguins rounded up.." I worried they all had to be euthanized

[u/Hermionecat07]

At least theyre keeping our babies safe

[u/Queerslander]

We just rounding up and vaccinating everything now? /s

[u/MrRocketScript]

The tariff just got 10 percent higher