Cannibalism is more common than thought in gray seals
“If gray seals had a police force, this guy would be locked up,” one researcher says.
The vast majority of the time, gray seals are happy eating fish. But new research shows that they may, from time to time, eat other mammals—including members of their own species.
A new study published in the Journal of Sea Research details the macabre case of an adult male seal capturing, killing, and beginning to eat a younger seal, off the coast of Germany’s island of Helgoland.
The new observation is only the third published paper on cannibalism among gray seals. However, it is the first time that scientists witnessed the whole act up close and performed a necropsy after the fact, describing the wounds left behind.
In late March, 2018, Abbo van Neer of Germany's University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover
