9:17am Tuesday 2nd February 2010
Welsh wildlife watchers are trying to make sense of a natural phenomenon, captured on camera for the first time off the Pembrokeshire coast.
Late last year, on two separate occasions, naturalist David Boyle photographed a bull seal killing a seal pup.
Mr Boyle was undertaking a seal pupping survey on Skomer Island at the time.
The Countryside Council for Wales regularly surveys and monitors Atlantic grey seals and said it was the first time such an incident had been captured on camera.
"This sight is unprecedented in Welsh waters," said a spokesman for the group. "Marine experts have no real idea what triggered the attacks."
WARNING: Some readers may find the images in the following slide show disturbing.
Mr Boyle, who has been surveying seals for several years, said that during the breeding season the bulls can be very fierce: "In the scene I witnessed, the bull seal seemed to be deliberately drowning the newly moulted pup.
"He then gouged a massive piece out of its neck. It was a gruesome sight that reminds us that seals are wild and unpredictable creatures."
In Skomer Marine Nature reserve, 132 seal pups were born last year, with 77% surviving. Apart from the killings, seal surveyors say the statistics represent a typical year.
Authorities have urged anyone witnessing a similar event to contact the Countryside Council for Wales's Skomer Marine Nature Reserve team on Skomer.MNR@ccw.gov.uk or 0845 1306229.
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