The Hunting Act: 20 years on
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Princess Kate bans royal hunting ‘blooding’ ritual for her children, new book reveals
Royal expert says Princess of Wales insisted her children not be put through royal ritual involving bloodying their faces in freshly hunted game
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After recovering from cancer, Princess Kate is gradually resuming her royal duties while preparing for her future role alongside her husband, Crown Prince William. As she steps back into the public eye, a new biography sheds light on a long-standing royal tradition she has firmly rejected for her children.
A forthcoming book, Yes, Ma’am – The Secret Life of Royal Servants by royal expert Tom Quinn, reveals that the Princess of Wales has banned the controversial “blooding” ritual for her children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. The tradition, practiced for generations within the royal family, involves young royals smearing the blood of their first hunting kill—typically a deer or fox—on their faces.
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“Charles’ daughter-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales, has put her foot down and insisted there will be no blooding for her children,” Quinn wrote.
King Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry, underwent the ritual as teenagers. In his autobiography Spare, Prince Harry detailed his unsettling experience at age 15, recalling how his hunting guide forced his head into a deer carcass.
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“He placed a hand gently behind my neck and pushed my head inside the carcass,” Harry wrote. “I tried to pull away, but Sandy pushed me deeper. I was shocked by his insane strength. And by the infernal smell. My breakfast jumped up from my stomach. After a minute I couldn’t smell anything, because I couldn’t breathe. My nose and mouth were full of blood, guts and a deep, upsetting warmth.”
While Kate has adhered to many royal customs—including traditional post-birth photo ops—insiders have long noted her quiet opposition to certain traditions, particularly royal hunting practices.
William, an avid shooter like his father, has also grown more hesitant about the family’s hunting legacy—not for personal moral reasons, but due to shifting public opinion.
“William loves shooting—a love he shares with his father—but he is also conscious that the tide is now moving against what many people now refer to as blood sports,” Quinn previously stated in 2023.
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Mass deaths of elephant seals recorded as bird flu sweeps across the Antarctic
Mass deaths of elephant seals recorded as bird flu sweeps across the Antarctic
This article is more than 1 year old
This article is more than 1 year old
Researchers warn of one of ‘largest ecological disasters of modern times’ if the highly contagious disease reaches penguin colonies
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Phoebe WestonFri 8 Dec 2023 00.00 ESTShare
Bird flu is spreading in the Antarctic, with hundreds of elephant seals found dead, and fears it could bring “one of the largest ecological disasters of modern times” if the highly contagious virus reaches the remote penguin populations.
The virus was first reported among brown skua on Bird Island, off South Georgia. Since then, researchers and observers have reported mass deaths of elephant seals, as well as increased deaths of fur seals, kelp gulls and brown skua at several other sites. Cases have been confirmed 900 miles (1,500km) west of South Georgia, among southern fulmar on the Falkland Islands.
Dr Meagan Dewar, chair of the Antarctic Wildlife Health Network, told the Guardian that the situation among southern elephant seals was concerning. “At some sites we’ve had mass mortalities, where we are getting into the hundreds,” she said. “There is a likely chance it could be avian influenza.”
So far tests have confirmed bird flu deaths at eight sites across the Antarctic, and the disease is suspected with confirmation from tests still pending at 20 further sites where animals have died.
Researchers reported that a number of elephant seals had been exhibiting symptoms of avian flu, such as difficulty breathing, coughing and accumulations of mucus around the nose. Lethargy, spasms and an inability to fly are symptoms in birds.
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While a number of seabird cases have been confirmed, many – including the elephant seals – are still classed as suspected, pending lab results.
So far there are no recorded cases on the Antarctic mainland – home to unique ecosystems that are some of the world’s most isolated – but the disease is expected to arrive in the coming months as birds move.
Dewar said: “It’s devastating to watch that happen and recording all the cases we’re getting.”
Penguins are starting to cluster together as the breeding season starts, and this close contact makes them particularly vulnerable. Previous outbreaks in South Africa, Chile and Argentina show they are susceptible to the disease.
“If the virus does start to cause mass mortality events across penguin colonies, it could signal one of the largest ecological disasters of modern times,” researchers wrote in a pre-print research paper last month.
Many species in the Antarctic are found nowhere else, so the consequences for the region of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) spreading are unknown.
The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research said recently: “Given the dense breeding colonies of wildlife in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions, HPAI is expected to have devastating impacts on the wildlife and to lead to catastrophic breeding failure and mortality events in the region.”
The virus has killed an estimated 20,000 sea lions in Chile and Peru. Dewar said: “If we start to get outbreaks similar to what we’ve seen in South America that could have very big impacts. Emperor penguins and chinstrap penguins have been taking significant declines, so if we get large outbreaks in those species, that could cause further pressure on those colonies.”
The current outbreak of the highly infectious variant of H5N1 – which started in 2021 – is estimated to have killed millions of wild birds. The strain spreading in Antarctica is clade 2.3.4.4b, which has decimated bird populations across the UK, continental Europe, South Africa and the Americas, with seabird colonies experiencing losses of 50% to 60%. The H5N1 strain has not yet reached Oceania
Dr Michelle Wille, from the Centre for Pathogen Genomics and the University of Melbourne, who is helping to record deaths, said: “It’s terrible news that it’s now in the sub-Antarctic, and we are very worried about viral spread into the Antarctic. In addition to negative affects on animals, the ‘removal’ of vast numbers of animals from the Antarctic ecosystem may have long-term ecosystem effects.”
Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey and the British government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency are identifying possible cases, testing them and sharing data. It is challenging to record what is happening because of the size of Antarctica and the small number of people monitoring it. A number of reports of mass deaths have come through tour vessels.
Many places in South Georgia are now closed to tourists and even researchers have to go through a number of procedures to get there in a bid to stop the disease spreading, said Dr Michael Wenger, who trained as a marine biologist and has been working as a guide in Antarctica for 18 years.
He added: “It’s already hard to estimate numbers in normal situations, because the area is huge and there are a lot of animals. Now with the areas closed, it’s even harder.”
This article was amended on 11 December 2023 because Dr Michelle Wille is at the University of Melbourne, not Sydney as an earlier version said.
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U.S. conditionally approves vaccine to protect poultry from avian flu
The decision brings U.S. poultry farmers a step closer to immunizing their flocks
- 14 Feb 2025
- 3:10 PM ET
- ByJon Cohen
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With egg prices in the United States soaring because of the spread of H5N1 influenza virus among poultry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday conditionally approved a vaccine to protect the birds. President Donald Trump’s administration may therefore soon face a fraught decision on whether to join the ranks of other nations—including China, France, Egypt, and Mexico—that vaccinate poultry against H5N1.
Although many influenza researchers contend that vaccination can help control spread of the deadly virus, the U.S. government has long resisted allowing its use because of politics and trade concerns that many contend are unscientific. The USDA approval may signal a shift in policy linked to the Trump administration’s worries about egg prices. Even with the conditional approval, USDA must still approve its use before farmers can start to administer the vaccine because special regulations apply to H5N1 and other so-called highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses.
The vaccine, made by Zoetis, contains a killed version of an H5N2 variant that the company has designed to work against circulating variants of the H5N1 virus that have decimated poultry flocks and have even jumped to cows and some humans. (The “H” in both variants stands for hemagglutinin, the surface protein of the virus, and antibodies against it are the main mechanism of vaccine-induced protection.) Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday that three cow veterinarians harbored antibodies to the H5N1 virus in dairy cattle. None had symptomatic disease, they noted in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, suggesting the virus may be more widespread in humans than previously thought.
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Zoetis CEO Kristin Peck announced the approval yesterday on CNBC. “The decision to vaccinate commercial poultry flocks rests solely with national regulatory authorities in consultation with their local poultry sector,” said Zoetis in a statement, which noted it has approval for similar vaccines in other countries. Zoetis also had an earlier version approved in 2016 that was in the National Veterinary Stockpile until 2021, but it was never used.
HPAI strains such as the current H5N1 have for decades been stamped out largely by culling affected flocks and enforcing strict biosecurity measures. But that strategy has failed since the February 2022 emergence in the U.S. of an H5N1 virus that belongs to a lineage known as clade 2.3.4.4b. Many scientists now worry the virus cannot be eradicated from the U.S. poultry flock, which means it has become endemic rather than epidemic.
“The future of H5 in the Americas isn’t entirely clear, but endemicity looks likely,” says Richard Webby, a bird flu investigator at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “Updated and quality H5 vaccines for poultry must be a big part of future responses if this is indeed the case.”
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