Like most seagulls, the kelp gull is an opportunist. It will catch fish and other small prey, but it’s not above scavenging at landfill sites. And off the southern coast of Argentina, some kelp gulls have developed a taste for whale.

Between June and December, Southern right whales gather to breed in the waters off Peninsula Valdes in Argentina, and every year, thousands of tourists go out to watch them.  Kelp gulls are watching too. As the whales surface for air, the birds land and rip pieces of skin and blubber form their backs, inflicting gaping wounds up to 20 centimetres long. The whales violently arch their backs to submerge whatever they can below the water, before hurriedly swimming away.

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