Sea snakes ‘mistaking divers for sex partners’

And other stories from the stranger side of life

A diver

Sea snakes are mistaking divers for potential sexual partners, a study has revealed. Researchers at Macquarie University in Australia found that the creatures charging at, biting, and coiling around divers may simply be engaging in a misdirected seduction. The approaches, which included the creatures flicking their tongues at people, were found to occur more often during the mating season, which runs from May until August.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.