Sexual harassment of a king penguin by an Antarctic fur seal

Abstract

Males of gregarious pinnipeds are often aggressive to conspecifics and sexual coercion of females is commonplace. Males of some pinniped species have been known to attempt interspecific copulation, occasionally being successful in producing hybrid offspring. The most extreme case of interspecific sexual coercion reported concerned species from different families. We report a case of interspecific sexual harassment bridging the rank of vertebrate class. © 2007 Japan Ethological Society and Springer.