The injured seal resting by the birder deck
A close up
Kevin having a look at the seal's other side
Another look at the seal's face
The seal and the sheathbill
Another close-up
The sheathbill investigating the seal
We had another seal pull itself up on station today. I'm not sure if this is a Crabeater or a Weddell seal but he was injured and managed to pull himself pretty far up onto station (and out of the road). We don't know for sure what would have caused the gashes in the seal's side but it may have been another seal defending it's territory.
Sheathbills are very curious birds and they are also scavengers. When the one in the picture above discovered that the seal was injured, he began to peck at the seal's wound. That bothered the seal so much that it started moving up the road- as it went, the sheathbill followed and continued to peck at the gash, effectively chasing the seal. When it was almost past the boathouse the seal turned and headed back towards the parking lot, trying to escape the sheathbill. That was when our waste tech, Kevin, saw what was happening and chased the sheathbill away.
Sheathbills are very curious birds and they are also scavengers. When the one in the picture above discovered that the seal was injured, he began to peck at the seal's wound. That bothered the seal so much that it started moving up the road- as it went, the sheathbill followed and continued to peck at the gash, effectively chasing the seal. When it was almost past the boathouse the seal turned and headed back towards the parking lot, trying to escape the sheathbill. That was when our waste tech, Kevin, saw what was happening and chased the sheathbill away.
1 comments:
Can you patch up the seal? It's kinda my instinct to put on some neosporin, wrap it in gauze, give the seal a hug and feed it some soup...but I'm guessing the biologists might find some fault in that logic.
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