Posted on 11/25/2014 4:37:29 PM PST by Theoria
The first time marine biologist William Haddad and his team saw a seal rape a penguin, they were shocked.
By the fourth time, they were convinced this bizarre behavior was becoming a trend.
For 50 years, researchers from the marine mammal program at the University of Pretoria in South Africa have been taking weekly censuses of the elephant seal population on sub-Antarctic Marion Island, more than a thousand miles south of Cape Town in the Indian Ocean. In 2006, they saw something they'd never seen before. A fur seal (not the species they were studying) mounted and appeared to mate with a king penguin.
They published a paper about the odd finding in 2008.
Then in happened again in 2009. And again in 2011, and once more in 2012.
"For the past 50 years, there have been people once a week on the beaches and this had never been seen. We said, 'This is strange. Why is this happening more often now?' So we decided to write a paper and come up with a hypothesis," Haddad told CBS News.
Haddad explained that it's not out of the ordinary to see a bull of one species of seal courting the female of another species and herding her into his harem. It's even possible that a seal might to try to reproduce with a sea lion. But this was something different entirely.
"This is very weird because it's hair and feathers, mammals and birds," he said. "It's such a big gap, it's unheard of."
In all four cases of what Haddad and his collaborators call sexual coercion, a seal chased, captured and mounted a penguin of unknown sex, then attempted to copulate with it "several times with periods of rest in between."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Prior to the attacks the seals were seen coming out of the local sea mosque. Just sayin’
And people still don’t believe that this can happen with other species, lets say with monkeys in Africa?
Well What was the penguin wearing??????
/ running and ducking…..
Two words: Climate change!!!
hazing requirement? maybe seals have stupid frats.
Obviously Willie has not been to San Francisco...
With Mullah Haddad?
Global warming, of course. That's the reason for the increasing temperatures, polar vortex, less rain, more rain, heavier snowstorms, smaller snowpack, more tornadoes, fewer tornadoes, and everything else under the sun.
Well, if it walks like a penguin, sometimes those sea weary seals just cant control themselves, it seems.
Will either be a confirmation that homosexuality is normal or “it was caused by global warming”
The temptation is so difficult...
No, I won't say anything...
5.56mm
Its because the penguins dress seductively.
Army Rangers would never do that.
As long as there is love, who are we to judge?
I was once told that the difference between, being "kinky," and being, "perverted," is that kinky is when you use a feather, and perverted is when you use the whole chicken...
It’s a good thing you didn’t put a sarcasm tag on that post because you know it is coming. Someone is going to blame this on global warming
The penguin was askin for it.
“Well What was the penguin wearing??????
/ running and ducking…..”
We know you are deliberately inciting Audubon ladies so they will throw enough bricks to make your new driveway.
;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.