Horrible Gulls Are Eating Baby Whales Alive

Yes, it's important not to anthropomorphize other species or impose our values on them—but sometimes animals are just horrible. For example, kelp gulls. A few decades ago the birds in one part of Argentina realized that for a tasty snack, they could tear flesh from the backs of whales when they came up for air. Eventually the whales learned to protect themselves somewhat from the gulls. But now the gulls have shifted their attention to the whales' babies, and might be killing them. Kelp gulls (Larus dominicanus) first got a taste for whale flesh in the 1970s. They began pulling pieces of dried-out skin from the backs of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) while the whales were relaxing at the water's surface at Península Valdés, Argentina. This is a calving ground, where mother whales travel to have their young. The pairs stay here for a few months, nursing and swimming ...