A woman has spoken of her horror after finding three seals on a beach with their heads missing.
Niamh Fox was out for a run on Narin Beach in Co Donegal on Saturday afternoon just before 5pm.
Niamh, from nearby Glenties, initially found one seal with its head missing.
However, as she ran on she found two more seals in the same condition within the space of one hundred yards.
She alerted the local lifeguard on the beach but he said he had never witnessed anything like it before.
Niamh said she suspects that something sinister happened to the creatures.
She said "It was just so sad to see. They were completely decapitated.
"I'm not sure how it happened. My father suspected they may have been culled by fishermen or poachers.
"I don't think it could have been a shark or something like that because why would another animal just take the heads off the seals?
"They could have been shot and their heads removed to hide any evidence."
The remains of the seals were later washed out on the tide.
