On the night of Saturday March 1st the pup started making more noise than usual. He had been on the path by the flag but when I went outside to check he was close to the main house and Chunk, who hadn’t been on the island in several days, was a few feet behind him. The pup was frightened and bleeding with several puncture wounds and scrapes from chunk biting him. Chunk’s mouth and teeth were covered in blood.

It is hard to make sense of this behaviour. After Chunk left the island we installed electric fence around the jetty to keep him out. The pup made his way onto the cistern, leaving a trail of blood, and has remained there all week.

While most of the wounds dont seem too bad there are two nasty gashes around the pups neck with deep cuts from Chunks teeth. Over the past few days these cuts have continued to release liquid, remain open and seem clearly infected. As the pup is not going into the ocean yet he doesnt have the benefit of salt water to flush his wounds. While they are resilient creatures it is still concerning; we are keeping a close eye on him.

These photos taken four days after the attack.

On Thursday Chunk tried to come back on the island via the boat ramp and got as far as the electric fence.