“Kelp Gulls Tear Out Baby Seal Eyes So They Can Feast On Their Remains When They Die: While Seagulls Might Be Feeding Machines, They Are far from Mindless”, 2015-08-17 (; backlinks):
“What most would consider a pain in the ass, I would consider it brilliant”, says Austin Gallagher, a scientist who generally studies large marine predators. “They can learn instantly and are fiercely competitive. Gulls are incredibly adaptive and intelligent birds. They are essentially the marine version of the crow, but with stronger wings to cope with coastal winds.”
…“The beach where I was touring was riddled with seal carcasses, many with their eyes missing”, he recalls. “Knowing that gulls are considered to be very adaptive, I knew there would be a chance for this amazing natural history ethogram to contribute to the scientific literature.”
…Then the gulls would leave the seal the now-blinded baby or juvenile to die, returning to feast on its carcass. No one has ever described this peeper-plucking behavior in gulls before, but kelp gulls are known for similar macabre feeding strategies.
In Argentina, scientists observed the same species stripping flesh from the backs of southern right whales (Eubalena australis) when the obligate air-breathing marine mammals come up for a breath. The gulls are so persistent that the whales have changed how they surface to breathe just to avoid losing chunks to the winged devils that descend from the sky.
So gouging eyeballs seems quite in character for these aggressive birds. While their methods may seem cruel, the kelp gulls are actually demonstrating incredible adaptive ability and intelligence. “This is likely a learned behavior”, Gallagher says. “It is a specialized process that puts the birds at risk, and there is clearly a benefit for the birds.”
He and his colleagues suggest the feeding strategy developed in response to an increase in seal numbers in the area and thus increased conflict for resources. Nearly 25 years prior, scientists saw trouble brewing between the seals and the gulls, but they predicted that the birds would be ousted by burgeoning seal colonies—they didn’t predict the kelp gulls’ smart survival strategy.
“These animals have learned to feed on large marine mammals around the world”, Gallagher notes. “To me that is super impressive.”