Antarctic Seals
furiousfart
Registered Users Posts: 102 Major grins
Well I'm back at Palmer station for the Winter 2009 season and so far it has been awesome and it's been just a few weeks of being in the region. In case you missed my thread about the 2008 Winter season here it is.
Fur Seals are very abundant around station, and to think that about a 100 years ago that they had been hunted near extinction. They are the seal equivalent of dogs, so they like to nap in the sun, bark and sometimes chase people, which is a bit ironic.
The other type of seal I saw an awful lot of last year is the Elephant seal, named so because the males have big noses and they get kinda large. They tend to spend a lot of time sleeping on land. They are both large and slow, and depending on the wind direction, really stinky. Here is a group of females founds sleeping.
And another female found blending in with her surroundings.
Next up is the Leopard Seal, lovingly referred to here as the Grizzly of the Antarctic. There is only a few instances of them attacking people but they are pretty vicious when they do, are are so when they get penguins. With that in mind before this past weekend I've only seen two leopards, one sleeping on a chunk of ice and the other swimming around the pier. Sunday I saw at least 10 which was pretty cool on it's own, but I also saw fist hand how well they hunt.
At one point we notice a Leopard seal heading toward our zodiac, then dive under the water. While we start looking for him to surface near the boat we notice a lone Gentoo penguin facing the opposite direction. We start to talk about how he should be more mindful of all the leopards we saw in the area. Just as it's dawning on me that I should get my camera out, from out of the water the Leopard appears, from right under the poor penguin! The seal must have left the water at least 3-4ft, like the sharks do when catching seals on the surface. While I didn't catch the act with my camera, I did get to see what a Leopard seal does before they actually eat the penguin.
Not too bad for a Saturday outing, wish I caught the catching, but I am happy with the shoots from it playing with it's food.
Fur Seals are very abundant around station, and to think that about a 100 years ago that they had been hunted near extinction. They are the seal equivalent of dogs, so they like to nap in the sun, bark and sometimes chase people, which is a bit ironic.
The other type of seal I saw an awful lot of last year is the Elephant seal, named so because the males have big noses and they get kinda large. They tend to spend a lot of time sleeping on land. They are both large and slow, and depending on the wind direction, really stinky. Here is a group of females founds sleeping.
And another female found blending in with her surroundings.
Next up is the Leopard Seal, lovingly referred to here as the Grizzly of the Antarctic. There is only a few instances of them attacking people but they are pretty vicious when they do, are are so when they get penguins. With that in mind before this past weekend I've only seen two leopards, one sleeping on a chunk of ice and the other swimming around the pier. Sunday I saw at least 10 which was pretty cool on it's own, but I also saw fist hand how well they hunt.
At one point we notice a Leopard seal heading toward our zodiac, then dive under the water. While we start looking for him to surface near the boat we notice a lone Gentoo penguin facing the opposite direction. We start to talk about how he should be more mindful of all the leopards we saw in the area. Just as it's dawning on me that I should get my camera out, from out of the water the Leopard appears, from right under the poor penguin! The seal must have left the water at least 3-4ft, like the sharks do when catching seals on the surface. While I didn't catch the act with my camera, I did get to see what a Leopard seal does before they actually eat the penguin.
Not too bad for a Saturday outing, wish I caught the catching, but I am happy with the shoots from it playing with it's food.
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And lots of photographic opportunities judging by your post.
Well done
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