12 hours ago
Clawed carcass on Anglesey beach leaves one person asking if a 'tiger' had washed up
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Beachgoers were left stunned after finding a large clawed carcass on an Anglesey beach. The discovery was made this morning on Traeth Lleiniog at Llangoed, near Beaumaris.
They initially noticed the bones of the carcass. They then saw the long claws on the animal that had perished, ruling out the possibility it was the carcass of any local livestock.
A local resident sent pictures to North Wales Live, saying it "not joking, it looks like tiger or some other type of big cat".
North Wales Live contacted local sealife expert Frankie Hobro, who owns Anglesey Sea Zoo in Brynsiencyn. She was able to explain what the group had come across. Join the North Wales Live WhatsApp community group where you can get the latest stories delivered straight to your phone
(Image: Andrew Harkiss)
She said: "This is an easy one and actually it isn't land based. This is definitely the carcass of a seal, almost definitely a grey seal from the patches of skin colour and remnants of fur and also from what I can tell of the size of, although this is more tricky to estimate without a scale.
"They do indeed have very impressive claws as this shows - very useful for hauling themselves out of the water over slippery seaweed-covered rocks.
(Image: Andrew Harkiss)
"They also have extremely impressive teeth but it looks as if the jaw is either not present or not distinguishable on this carcass - possibly just the angle from which the photograph is taken.
"Grey seal jaws are seriously impressive, very comparable to the jaw of an Alsatian dog, but with the teeth pointing more backwards into the mouth.
"All in all an adult grey seal is a force to be reckoned with and demands the utmost respect. These big 'sea dogs' are common in large numbers around our coasts here but they should not be approached even when they looked benign, and in fact it is illegal to deliberately disturbed a herd of seals when they are hauled out." Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
