A feisty dolphin has been spotted battling a conger eel in a rarely seen fight between the two species.
Photographs showed the titanic contest between the sea creatures off the UK coast.
Witnesses said despite its size and sharp teeth, the eel appeared to lose.
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Fran Fitzpatrick, who has been studying dolphins for years, said he had never seen anything like it.
“The bottlenose dolphin was showing off a mega catch,” Fran told Need To Know.
“The conger eel would have been too big for the dolphin to swallow but it certainly had fun playing with it.
“I’ve never seen it before but these dolphins do go after smaller sharks up to the size of a tope and they can beat smaller cetaceans to death if they catch them.
“They can reach 80 stone in weight and are a rather aggressive species in general.
“Eels can be a part of their diet though.
“And they really enjoy a challenging hunt of larger fish like salmon and sewin (sea trout).
“In contrast, a dolphin calf then started playing with a tiny fish after she and her mum encountered the adult with the eel.”
It happened off New Quay, in Ceredigion, mid Wales.
Britain’s biggest resident population of dolphins lives in Cardigan Bay.
While dolphins can be seen throughout the year, the summer months offer the highest chance of sightings.
Last month another dolphin likened to Darth Vader killed a shark off Aberystwyth.
The bottlenose, known as Anakin, dominated the sizable tope.
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