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WASHINGTON (WASHINGTON POST) – A juvenile youth-like living room of casual appearance near a white sand beach on green foliage. His eyes are half closed and he has a serene expression on his face.
But the calm attitude of the seal is surprising. Why? Well, there is a long black and white eel hanging from his right nostril.
"It's so shocking," Claire Simeone, a veterinarian and monk seal expert based in Hawaii, told the Washington Post Thursday, December 6. "It's an animal that has another animal stuck in its nose."
Simeone was not the only one to be amazed by the seal photo and its unusual facial ornament that had been shared earlier this week on Facebook by the Hawaiian Seal Program of the National Oceans Administration. and the atmosphere.
The photo – taken this year in the remote islands of northwestern Hawaii – has since gone viral, drawing attention to a rare phenomenon that continues to confuse scientists who now beg seals at risk of "make better choices".
It all began about two years ago when Charles Littnan, lead scientist of the monk seal program, woke up with a strange email sent by field researchers. The subject line was short: "Eel in the nose."
"It was just like: 'We found a seal with an eel stuck in the nose, do we have a protocol?'," Said Littnan at The Post newspaper at the time. a telephone interview.
There was none, said Littnan, and it took several emails and phone calls before the decision was made to seize the eel and try to pull it.
"There may have been only two inches of eel still coming out of the nose, so it looked a lot like the wizard 's trick when they take out the tissues and keep on". back and forth, "he said.
After less than a minute of towing, a two and a half foot dead eel came out of the seal nostril.
Since then, Littnan has stated that at least three or four cases have been reported, the most recent occurring this fall. In all cases, the eels were successfully removed and the seals "are doing well", he said. None of the eels, however, survived.
"We do not know why this happens suddenly," Littnan said. "You see very strange things if you look at nature long enough and that could become one of those little quirks and mysteries of our career in 40 years, we will be retired and we are still wondering how that is Is past. "
Researchers have already determined that this was not the result of a human being with a personal vendetta against seals and eels, as all cases had been reported in remote islands only frequented by scientists.
Littnan says that he has some theories about how an eel could naturally get stuck in a seal nostril.
The favorite prey of seals – usually fish, octopus and, of course, eels – like to hide in coral reefs not to be eaten, and as marine mammals do not have their hands, they have to hunt with their faces.
"They like to stick their faces in the holes of the coral reef and they spit water out of the objects and they do all kinds of maneuvers, but they sink into holes," Littnan said. .
Perhaps, he said, a cornered eel decided that the only way to escape or defend himself was to swim up the nostril of his attacker and that the young seals who "are not very good at getting food" have been forced to learn a hard lesson.
But Littnan said the theory did not make much sense. "These are really long eels and their diameter is probably close to that of a nasal pbadage," he said.
He added that the nostrils of a monk seal, which reflexively close when they dive for food, are very muscular and it would be difficult for any animal to get through. "I can not think of an eel that really wants to sneak into the nose," he said.
The other way that eels could end up in the nostrils is to vomit. Similar to the way people sometimes accidentally vomit food or drink from their noses, this can also happen to seals, which often regurgitate their meals.
Nevertheless, Littnan said that it did not seem possible that a "long and fat eel" would end up going through the seal's nose rather than through the mouth. The "most plausible" theory, he said, is that adolescent monk seals are not so different from their human counterparts.
Monk seals "seem naturally attracted to difficult situations," said Littnan. "It almost looks like one of those teenage trends," he said. "A young seal made this thing very stupid and now others are trying to imitate it."
Although no seals have died or been seriously affected by eels, keeping a pet dead in the nose for a prolonged period has potentially damaging effects on health, said Simeone, director of Ke Kai Ola, a hospital. for monk seals in Hawaii, led by Marine Mammal Center.
With an eel lodged in the nose, a monk seal would not be able to close the nostril clogged during the dive, which means that water could get into their lungs and cause problems, such as getting sick. pneumonia, said Simeone.
A rotting eel carcbad could also lead to infections, she said. On Facebook, the photo of the seal had more than 1,600 reactions in the early morning of Friday. The caption reads, "Mondays … that might not have been a good thing for you, but it had to be better than an eel in the nose." It's also become a trend on Twitter.
Many expressed sympathy for the seal to experience what a Twitter user described as "the most uncomfortable thing of all time". "The eel RIP, but how good was that for the seal when it was removed?" another person asked.
Littnan, however, told the newspaper that the young seal "seemed apparently pretty oblivious to the fact that there were two feet of eel sticking out of his face".
In general, Simeone said that marine animals are "very stoic," adding, "It's amazing the kind of things they can tolerate."
Littnan said he hoped this would not happen yet, but that "eel sniffing" has not yet made its way into the seal community. We hope it is only one of those dunes that will disappear and will never be seen again. "
If monk seals could understand humans, Littnan said that he had a message for them: "I would gently plead for them to stop."
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