Coyotes will scavenge from bins, hunt small vertebrates, and chow down on pretty much anything. But now we can add something new to their list of favorite meals. For the first time, scientists have captured footage of coyotes hunting harbor seals.
We know that land carnivores hunt marine mammals. It happens on coastlines around the world. On Canada’s Ellesmere Island, arctic wolves occasionally prowl cracks in the sea ice, looking for sunbathing seals. But little is known about how common such interactions are.
In the last few years, Sarah Grimes, co-author of the new study, had noticed seal-pup carcasses on MacKerricher State Beach in California. Weirdly, they had all been dragged to almost the exact same spot and then eaten. What predator was devouring the pups was a mystery. Black bears, bobcats, mountain lions, and coyotes all stalk the region. Based on nearby tracks and droppings, Grimes had suspected coyotes but never had any proof.
Coyote tracks and drag marks. Photo: Sarah Grimes
Caught on camera
Then in 2023-24, the motion-trigger cameras recorded coyotes dragging the seals away from the beach on three separate occasions.
Since the new study, other researchers have come forward with photos of coyotes hunting seal pups elsewhere in California, as well as in Washington State and Massachusetts.
These are not simply opportunistic attacks. Most of the time, the coyotes start by eating the brain, tearing off the baby seals’ heads to get to it. Between 2016 and 2023 scientists discovered the remains of over 50 pups that had been dragged away from the rookery on MacKerricher State Beach to nearby dunes and eaten this way.
A coyote hunts and kills a harbor seal pup in Bolinas Lagoon in 2022. A single coyote (A) ambushed a group of hauled‐out adult harbor seals and pups (B) and killed a pup (C, D). Seals escaped into the water to flee coyote predation (E). Photo: Clint Graves
Historically, seals in the area raised their pups on the islands. As the numbers of wolves and grizzlies fell in California in modern times, some seals moved to the mainland. In recent years, more seals are choosing rocky, hard-to-reach areas rather than more accessible beaches. It seems that the presence of land predators influences where seals raise their young.
The team is now interested in seeing if this coyote behavior also occurs at other seal rookeries.
Frankie Gerraty, lead author of the study, has long studied coyotes and worries this will only put people off coyotes even more.
“Coyotes have a PR problem,” he says. “A lot of people do not like coyotes, but everybody loves baby seals.”
