Skuas are notorious for snatching the eggs away from penguins for a meal. But as you might come to expect, the victim is never happy to learn that they’ve been burglarized, especially when the bounty is none other than a mother penguin’s very own egg.
In this comical footage, we witness a skua that doesn’t know when to call it quits. After taking an egg away from a mother chinstrap penguin, it goes from being the hunter to the hunted as the penguin chases the skua away. The skua tries again, but in a territory dominated by penguins, it can be tough to get away successfully.
After being chased by a small group of penguins, we can see the skua extending its wings upright in an attempt to look larger than it really is. This is a common intimidation tactic in the animal kingdom, but as we humans know, there’s far more power in numbers than sheer size.
While the skua didn’t quite get away with the egg this time, perhaps it’ll have better luck the next time it dives in for a feast.