Brain-damaged seals attack bathers

And other stories from the stranger side of life

An angry seal
An angry-looking seal, though not necessarily one guilty of eating a shark
(Image credit: Getty)

Seals “driven mad” by eating “toxic fish” are attacking bathers in Cape Town, said The Times. The attacks have been blamed on animals suffering from severe brain damage caused by eating fish laced with a toxic algae. In one case, an actress was attacked by a seal that had just chased and mauled a boy. In another case, a woman was pursued and pounced on by a seal. Reports of attacks have increased since a mass die-off of seals along the coast that was attributed to poisoning by domoic acid.

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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.