Skua Stealing Milk From a Nursing Elephant Seal Pup-3
$100.00 – $1,500.00
An elephant seal pup nursing is agitated and annoyed with an unwelcome intruder, the skua. Aggressive and predatory, the skua was stealing milk from the frustrated seal pup. Large, heavily built birds, skuas are closely related to members of the gull family. The Antarctic or the Brown skuas breed on most of the southern islands and may be distributed as far north as the subtropics. In winter after the breeding season, skuas species migrate northward spending most of their time at sea. In appearance, skuas are brown and look like immature gulls, although bulkier, more robust and aggressive. They have conspicuous white patches at the base of their flying feathers, wedge-shaped tails, and a black, short heavy bill. Their flight is not graceful, with relatively little gliding and much flapping. The diet of Antarctic skuas is broad depending on season and their locality. They may scavenge and predate upon other seabirds and their young and eggs, or they may roam the southern oceans feeding on fish, molluscs, squid, and crustaceans.