Hope that Neil the seal's solo lifestyle may help him avoid bird flu

Neil the seal not immune from new bird flu threat despite isolated lifestyle Fri 26 Jun 2026 at 5:24am In short: A five-year-old elephant seal known as Neil has returned to land in southern Tasmania. An expert says despite his relatively isolated existence, Neil would be susceptible to the highly pathogenic and deadly form of bird flu that has been recently detected in Australia. What's next? The public is urged to maintain their distance from the seal, and to avoid attempting to interact with him or move him away from populated areas. Neil the seal is back in the spotlight. The five-and-a-half-year-old elephant seal has been spotted once again in southern Tasmania, this time being moved along by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) staff after he was found blocking traffic. Neil has amassed a significant following on social media, but authorities have warned the public to keep their distance and allow him to go about his business. Loading...The elephant seal — now considered a sub-adult who is not quite at breeding age yet — is getting bigger and his behaviour is changing, which could pose a risk to the public. Weighing in at nearly 1,000 kilograms, Neil is more of a risk to people than they are to him. But there is another looming risk that experts are warning about, which not even a seal the size of Neil can avoid — bird flu. The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected recently in Western Australia and South Australia. It has already devastated animal populations across the world, from poultry and sea birds to mammals. Neil 'isolated' from colony life and infection Experts predict it is now a matter of when, not if, the deadly strain arrives in Tasmania. And, despite the name, birds are not the only species at risk. Earlier this month, it was confirmed the H5N1 strain had killed around 13,000 southern elephant seal pups on the remote sub-Antarctic Australian territory of Heard Island in the Southern Ocean. It has also decimated seal and sea lion populations across South America and other sub-Antarctic islands. The virus was confirmed to have reached Heard Island last August. Since then, some seal colonies were found to have lost up to 97 per cent of their pups, although younger elephant seals were not the only ones in the colony at risk. "It's also the adult females and your big, huge bulls that have been killed by the virus as well," Dr Jane Younger, a senior lecturer in Southern Ocean ecology, said. Dr Younger has spent the past 15 years working on seabirds and seals in the Southern Ocean. She said that because Neil was not living in a big colony of elephant seals, he was at a slightly lower risk of contracting bird flu. "They all kind of hang out together and lie on top of each other in big piles," Dr Younger said. "They do play fighting where they bite each other on the face, so there's lots of chances for transmission. Neil's isolated from all of that." Despite Neil's relatively quarantined lifestyle, Dr Younger said the high mortality rate among elephant seals with bird flu indicates the species contracts the virus easily. Even though there were no other seals for him to catch it from, he could come in contact with the disease from a migrating sea bird or a contaminated water source — via bird droppings — around the Tasmanian beach communities he frequents, Dr Younger said. The only animals detected with the virus in Australia so far are migratory birds from the Southern Ocean. Salmon pens likely transmission site Birdlife Tasmania chair Mark Holdsworth OAM said the infected birds found in Australia — brown skua and giant petrels — were both common in Tasmanian waters, meaning it was only a matter of time until the virus made it to the island state. Mr Holdsworth said once it arrives, a likely pathway for the H5N1 strain to infect other species was through marine salmon farms, where fur seals and gulls often congregated. "We can expect silver, kelp and Pacific gulls, black-faced cormorants and fur seals to be infected around fish farms, resulting in mass mortalities,"he said. The bird conservation charity has identified waterfowl, in particular black swans, and the critically endangered swift parrot as particularly at risk. As for Neil, his solo lifestyle may keep him safer than other elephant seals, but his age — and all the temperamental changes that come with it — mean he was unlikely to stay out of trouble. Dr Younger said, without any other seals to play fight with, wheelie bins and domestic fences may remain the target of his adolescent energy. And as he gets closer to breeding age — at about eight years old — Neil could potentially become more territorial, aggressive and dangerous to the public. As an adult, Neil could weigh in at more than twice his current weight. For Tasmania's NRE, it has become a balancing act between protecting Neil's welfare and keeping the public safe. The Department has urged the public not to approach or engage Neil, or make any attempt to try to move him along if he appears in populated areas. And while NRE's methods used to move Neil along — including using poles with padded ends to nudge him — appear confronting, the Department's Dr Kris Carlyon said appearing bigger and more dominant was a safe and common tactic. Neil likely to return frequently to Tasmania Dr Carlyon said when Neil returns to the ocean to forage, he would also be solo, meaning his chances of interacting with other infected seals was minimal. "Neil is probably in the best place he could be at this time,"he said. But given an elephant seal's propensity to return to where they are born, it was unlikely he will stop frequenting southern Tasmania. While researchers cannot know for sure, Dr Younger said it was thought Neil's mum was probably from sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island, located about halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica. "She might have been a bit of an inexperienced young breeder who ended up giving birth in the wrong place," Dr Younger said. His consistency in returning to Tasmania for his mid-year haul out, and again a few months later to moult, indicated a pattern of behaviour that would not change, even if the location was atypical. "Neil is unique in the life that he's chosen,"Dr Younger said.