Ultimate Antarctic perversion: Fur seals and penguins have sex. Sort of.

Worried looking penguin. Get high quality version: Lonely Adelie Penguin - Pygoscelis adeliae , originally uploaded by blather.

Breaking bank holiday news from the BBC:

An Antarctic fur seal has been observed trying to have sex with a king penguin. The South African-based scientists who witnessed the incident say it is the most unusual case of mammal mating behaviour yet known.

The incident, which lasted for 45 minutes and was caught on camera, is reported in the Journal of Ethology. The bizarre event took place on a beach on Marion Island, a sub-Antarctic island that is home to both fur seals and king penguins. Why the seal attempted to have sex with the penguin is unclear. But the scientists who photographed the event speculate that it was the behaviour of a frustrated, sexually inexperienced young male seal.

The state of arousal amongst the scientists watching was not, apparently, recorded in the Journal of Ethology.

BBC: 'Sex pest' seal attacks penguin (with photograph - not work safe if you happen to work with impressionable seals or penguins)