The Mandelbear's Musings

'Sex pest' seal attacks penguin (BBC).

An Antarctic fur seal has been observed trying to have sex with a king penguin.

The South African-based scientists who witnessed the incident say it is the most unusual case of mammal mating behaviour yet known.

The incident, which lasted for 45 minutes and was caught on camera, is reported in the Journal of Ethology.

The bizarre event took place on a beach on Marion Island, a sub-Antarctic island that is home to both fur seals and king penguins.

Why the seal attempted to have sex with the penguin is unclear. But the scientists who photographed the event speculate that it was the behaviour of a frustrated, sexually inexperienced young male seal.

Equally, it might be been an aggressive, predatory act; or even a playful one that turned sexual.

A commenter on wcg's post points out that the second paragraph needs to be edited to read "...most unusual case of non-human mammal mating behavior..."

Also noted recently in this post by snobahr and this post by thnidu (who has by far the better icon for it).

I couldn't possibly make this stuff up.