Scientists have cracked the case of scores of decapitated seals discovered on northern California seashores since 2016.
Noyo Heart for Marine Science’s Sarah Grimes investigates marine mammal deaths, and informed The Mercury Information she suspected a accountable offender, however wanted proof.
“It was so grotesque,” Grimes informed the Bay Space newspaper. “I used to be like marine mammal CSI, seeing all of the lifeless pups with their heads torn off, and I’m like, ‘What the heck did that?’”
The headless our bodies have been present in MacKerricher State Park, the place a pupil at College of California Santa Cruz caught the responsible celebration within the act.
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“We arrange digital camera traps and received one actually strong video of a coyote dragging a harbor seal pup and beheading it,” Ph.D. pupil Frankie Gerraty mentioned. “We’re fairly assured there was predation at 4 websites alongside the Northern California coast.”
Researchers are usually not but sharing the video whereas they proceed attempting to know “the seemingly new predator-prey relationship,” the Los Angeles Occasions reviews.
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Coyotes are showing extra typically within the space after being poisoned and hunted by farmers and ranchers for many years.
“This actually is nature’s stability,” Grimes informed the LA Occasions. “The coyote is just not a villain. It’s a part of the ecosystem that has been lacking for some years.”
Scientists are nonetheless working to know why coyotes are solely going for the seals’ heads, leaving their our bodies behind, however imagine it may must do with the vitamin content material of seal brains in comparison with different physique elements.
Annual closures are at present in place at Level Reyes Nationwide Seashore till March 31, 2024, to guard elephant seal pups from disturbance throughout pupping season, the park’s web site says.
The seals discovered decapitated by coyotes are harbor seals, and research will continue into searching patterns and the affect on the marine animal inhabitants.
Authentic article supply: Scientists ID mystery killer of decapitated seals found on California beaches since 2016
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