Why would a seal be flinging an octopus around above the water and then slapping a kayaker with it?
There is a video of a seal sucker punching a kayaker with an octopus,
I suppose the seal wasn't exactly trying to hit the kayaker, but why would it be flinging the octopus around above the surface of the water?
1 answer
Sea Lions and Fur Seals are known to eat octopus, but they're a bit difficult for them to eat as is. They're one of many creatures that fling food out of the ocean to tenderise, stun, kill, or rip food off of their prey.
According to: https://theconversation.com/tackling-the-kraken-unique-dolphin-strategy-delivers-dangerous-octopus-for-dinner-75222
During these events, dolphins were observed shaking and tossing octopus around at the water’s surface. In some instances, the prey was gripped in the teeth before being slapped down onto the water.
This likely helped both to kill the octopus and to tear it into smaller, more digestible pieces. In other instances, the octopus was tossed across the surface of the water before being recaptured and tossed again.
Also for light reading: https://www.livescience.com/63693-seal-smacks-kayaker-with-octopus.html - which states similar:
According to the study authors, octopus suckers can still grasp and stick even after the octopus is dead, making swallowing a whole octopus a dangerous endeavor. However, tossing and shaking the octopus can damage the tissue and make the suckers less dangerous.
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/20641. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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