Why some Antarctic fur seals try to mate with king penguins

Researchers have recorded multiple instances of Antarctic fur seals attempting to mate with king penguins.

And according to the scientists, who have published their latest observations in the journal Polar Biology, this interspecies aggression is a trend that's only getting worse.

The BBC has published photos and videos from the researchers, who first observed the behaviour years ago, but now report that such instances seem to be occurring more frequently.

"At first glimpse, we thought the seal was killing the penguin," Nico de Bruyn, lead author of the recent study, told the BBC. But the incident, which lasted 45 minutes, couldn't be mistaken for attempted murder in the end. Instead, the young adult male seal was attempting to mate with a penguin of unknown sex.

They initially thought that this was probably just an isolated incident, carried out as an act of aggression, confusion or misguided playfulness.

"Honestly, I did not expect that follow-up sightings of a similar nature to that 2006 one would ever be made again, and certainly not on multiple occasions," de Bruyn, a researcher at the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria, told the BBC.