Hawaiian monk seals are apparently known for getting eels stuck up their noses — and scientists aren’t exactly sure why.
“Mondays … It might not have been a good one for you but it had to have been better than an eel in your nose,” Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program wrote on Facebook , along with a strange, yet cute photo of a the semiaquatic mammal in a sealy predicament.
The seal can be seen toting a spotted eel in its right nostril and squinting its eyes.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explained Wednesday that these types of seals “forage by shoving their mouth and nose into the crevasses of coral reefs, under rocks, or into the sand.
In all cases of this phenomenon, the eels were able to be successfully removed and caused no harm to the seals.
The seal can be seen toting a spotted eel in its right nostril and squinting its eyes.
- Up your nose with a slippery hose: Rare seals are snorting eelsThe New Daily
- Eels keep getting lodged in noses of Hawaiian monk seals, and no one knows whyfox5sandiego.com
- Please enjoy this photo of a seal with an eel stuck up its noseYahoo News
- Seal found with eel stuck up nose baffles researchersABC News
- Seals keep getting eels stuck up their nosesNew York Post
- Seal spotted with eel in noseKOMO News
- Endangered Hawaiian monk seals keep getting eels stuck up their noses ...WatertownDailyTimes.com
- Hawaiian Monk Seal With Eel Stuck Up Its Nose Makes Full Recovery — The Eel ...Yahoo News
- A scientist is urging seals with eels stuck in their noses to “make better ...Brag Magazine