A dolphin that was found dead in the Oosterschelde earlier this month was probably bitten by a gray seal. According to researcher Lonneke IJsseldijk of Utrecht University, this is remarkable. As far as we know, it is the first time such a seal has attacked a bottlenose dolphin, writes Broadcasting Zeeland.
The dolphin was first seen in October in the Oosterschelde. The animals don’t really belong there. “It is not a good habitat for them. They live in the open sea, not in a closed area like the Oosterschelde, where not enough or not the right food can be found,” said Annemarie van den Berg of SOS Dolfijn earlier.
The organization hoped that the animal would find its way back to the North Sea, but it did not succeed. At the beginning of December, the dolphin was found dead between Poortvliet and Scherpenisse.
Research has now shown, among other things, that the animal was probably bitten by a seal. “The bottlenose dolphin had inflamed bite wounds on its body that match the bite marks made by a gray seal,” says IJsseldijk. The research also shows that the animal had pneumonia.
IJsseldijk thinks that the dolphin was still alive when the stranded.
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