The pic of the seal with an eel stuck up its nose has gone viral on social media.
A hilariously adorable picture has gone viral this week, but it has raised more questions than answers. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program shared a photo which shows a seal with a spotted eel stuck up its nose.
Posted on Monday, the caption began, "Mondays...it might not have been a good one for you but it had to have been better than an eel in your nose."
The picture, which shows the seal looking surprisingly chill, has everyone amused. Since being posted, it has garnered over 1,000 'shares' and tickled a ton of netizens.
However, the strange part about the whole incident is that it is not a one-off thing. As the Guardian reports, this incident is just the latest in a line of eels-in-nose incidents that have baffled scientists.
"We've been intensively monitoring monk seals for four decades and in all of that time nothing like this has happened," said Charles Littnan, the lead scientist at Noaa's Hawaiian monk seal research program, to the Guardian. "Now it's happened three or four times and we have no idea why."
"In all cases the eel was successfully removed and the seals were fine. The eels, however, did not make it," Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program revealed in its Facebook caption.
KTLV reports that this particular viral picture was taken over the summer on the French Frigate Shoals. And while nobody knows for sure why seals keep getting eels stuck up their noses, experts do have two theories: "Monk seals feed by sticking their noses in coral reefs and digging in sand so it is possible the eel was defending itself or trying to escape and forced itself into the nose. Or, the seal regurgitated it and it went out the wrong place. More likely the first..."
While may not know why this is happening, the photograph has definitely inspired a lot of puns and jokes on social media.
""When an eel lunges out and clamps on to your snout, That's a Moray," joked one commenter on Facebook. "You know what they say. 'Seals before eels, bruh'"laughed a second. "An eely bad day!" a third quipped.
Let us know what you think of the pic using the comments section below.
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