Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!hybrid!scifi!bywater!uunet!jarthur!jokim From: jokim@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (John H. Kim) Newsgroups: sci.bio Subject: Re: Killing for fun Message-ID: <10994@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> Date: 27 Feb 91 04:18:13 GMT References: <1991Feb26.202248.26171@odin.corp.sgi.com> <1991Feb26.233912.22132@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711 Lines: 20 In article schumach@convex.com (Richard A. Schumacher) writes: >On the other hand, seals all along the west coast are often >observed killing far more salmon and other fish than they >can eat. Why do they do it? I can personally confirm this. I watched a young (<6 ft) California sea lion catch and toss around a mackerel for about two hours while I was fishing in a harbor. Every few minutes I'd hear a SLAP over the water and see the mackeral go skittering across the surface. The sea lion would swim around a bit, retrieve the mackerel, and repeat the process. Eventually, it left the mackerel floating on the surface and disappeared. I hung around for about an hour longer and the sea lion didn't return. If you ask me, from what I've seen of my dog playing with rubber toys, I'd say the sea lion was playing with the fish. -- John H. Kim | (This space to be filled when I jokim@jarthur.claremont.edu | think of something very clever uunet!jarthur!jokim | to use as a disclaimer)