Fur seals are emerging as the main suspects after numerous dead sea birds, including headless penguins, were found along New South Wales’ South Coast.
Warning: This story contains images some people may find disturbing.
Key points:
- Six little penguins were found beheaded on a NSW South Coast beach earlier this month
- Some 20 dead gannets have also been found in similar circumstances to birds discovered last year
- The penguin population along the South Coast is growing and more dead birds are expected
Six little penguins were found beheaded at Barlings Beach, near Batemans Bay, on August 15 and a dead Australasian gannet was found the same day on a beach in Narooma.
Further north on July 16, nine gannets were found washed up dead with puncture wounds on a beach in Currarong, and nine more were found on a beach at Berrara a week later.
Australia Seabird and Turtle Rescue (ASTR) Lisa Hood South Coast branch coordinator said the reports were highly unusual.
“It’s not something we have seen before in these numbers,” she said.
“It’s a mystery.”
Similar case at Whale Beach in 2022
Australian Registry of Wildlife Health manager Dr Karrie Rose was sent one of the gannets retrieved from Currarong.
She said it was challenging to make a definitive diagnosis, but the injuries were similar to a case where more than 10 gannets were found on Whale Beach in Sydney during July 2022.
She said the birds retrieved from Whale Beach were in “immaculate condition, fit and healthy up until the second they died”.
They also shared similar injuries in that their bottoms were bitten off, and they had paired puncture wounds that matched the canine teeth of fur seals.
Dr Rose started investigating and found the Cape gannet population in South Africa was in extreme decline because of local fur seal predation.
She said the Whale Beach gannets supported the hypothesis that one or more fur seals in Australia had learnt to “frenzy-kill” seabirds like the Cape fur seal.
“Seals eat seabirds, so I don’t think that part’s really unusual,” Dr Rose said.
“They would come up from underneath and have a munch but they’d usually eat the whole thing and not kill more than they needed.
“It’s the frenzy-kill aspect of it, that’s unusual.”
Dr Rose said it was not impossible a seal in Australia had learnt the behaviour, or that one seal was responsible for both incidents.
“It’s happening out at sea, so we don’t know who the culprit is,” she said.
A targeted approach
Department of Environment senior research scientist Nicholas Carlile analysed one of the little penguins collected from Barlings Beach.
He said it was quite likely it had been attacked by a fur seal.
The seals were only eating the head, Mr Carlile said, because it contained the brain and was the most nutritious part of the animal.
“It’s a case of looking for the best resources out of the energy that they put in,” he said.
Mr Carlile said the penguin population along the South Coast was growing, which provided more food for seals and could make sightings of dead birds on beaches more common.
