

Sign up
Here's how it works:
  1. Anybody can ask a question
  2. Anybody can answer

Popular facebook group

Nature isn’t always kind and cuddly. A study showed that sea otters will restrain baby seals and then begin copulation; sometimes drowning it during the 105-minute-long process. Even after the seal is dead, the otter will hang on to the carcass and continue to mate with it for up to a week.

Otter raping baby seals

I read this post on "I fucking love science"-group on facebook. Is it really true sea otter rape baby seals to the death?

share|improve this question
up vote 77 down vote accepted

The very next line of the quote you included, from the site you linked was:

More info:

That redirects you to a 2011 news article in called The Other Side of Otters, which includes a witness account:


The new article explains this was just one of at least nineteen occurrences documented in an article in the journal Aquatic Mammals.

A quick search in Google Scholar produces the actual article. Note: contains photographs that some people may find distressing.

In conclusion: Yes, it happens. There are detailed descriptions documented by marine biologists, including photos.

share|improve this answer
I'm almost afraid to ask, but do we know why? – Avi Apr 21 '13 at 12:45
@Avi: Why do humans? I'm reluctant to ascribe motivations to animals, but I assume (without research) it is misfiring in-species behaviour, whether mating, dominance-assertion or play. See also: dogs humping people's legs. – Oddthinking Apr 21 '13 at 14:22
@Avi: Did you read the article, or the cited paper? From the abstract: "Possible explanations for this behavior are discussed in the context of sea otter biology and population demographics." – Ilmari Karonen Apr 21 '13 at 14:45
@Ilmari: Good point. I hadn't read that part of the article. They suggest that aggressive mating with female otters is common - to the point of significant fatalities. The aggressive mating attempts with seals may be triggered by recent underpopulation of female otters, plus the nature of polygynous territorial males excluding others males from access to the females. "These subdominant sea otters would have been denied access to female conspecifics by territorial males and may have simply redirected normal sexual responses toward [seals]." – Oddthinking Apr 21 '13 at 16:59
If the rule being selected is "when you haven't earned a harem, violently mate with small, furry creatures at any opportunity", that may lead to more offspring on average rather than less, outweighing the wasted energy. See also: men's nipples. – Oddthinking Apr 22 '13 at 7:05

protected by Community Oct 7 '13 at 2:40


Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
