Gulls' vicious attacks on whales

Summary

June 24, 2009: Gulls near Valdes Peninsula, Argentina have learned to attack surfacing whales, especially mothers and calves, for their blubber. These attacks have increased in frequency over recent decades until 78% of all whales have been attacked by now. The whales sport large wounds which look like the results of thousands of bites.

Source

Bibliography

1. Original article

Game and Story Use

• Possibly a chemical that has been released in the region has made the gulls more aggressive.
  • Alternatively, an Eldritch Abomination is dwelling near or below Valdes Peninsula, and has driven the gulls to this behavior.
• For a more scientific explanation, something has eaten/killed whatever the gulls normally eat and they are starving.
• Alternatively this is an example of a meme spreading through a population - one or more gulls discovered that this was a good way to get relatively easy access to high value fat and the others are learning from them - something we don't normally expect to see in avians, particularly asocial ones like gulls.
• There is something creepy about small animals and feeding on larger animals which can't defend themselves, even if they aren't attacking humans directly. If the same thing happens to livestock where the PCs currently are, the PCs will surely be creeped out.
  • This is actually happening with keas attacking sheep in New Zealand.
  • Other possible attackers include crows, or rats and similar vermin. Possible victim species include domesticated animals such as cattle (a new form of cattle mutilation), sheep, or goats.
  • This sort of thing happens in movies all the time, so your fellow gamers are probably already programmed to find it creepy. For the related tropes, see Attack of the Killer Whatever and Ravens and Crows.
• In a silly campaign, this is the result of a spelling error and the gulls are thousands of miles from their intended target.