Antarctic Wildlife

[Written by Elizabeth Leonardis for our old blog, So Civilized]

Adelie penguin couple and their egg photo: Scott Sternbach

I thought that I would post more of Scott’s incredible photos and give you a little info about the local wildlife. The Adelie penguins are the only ones that have colonies within our boating limits that we are allowed to visit. So they are the ones that I most closely follow. The Adelies on Torgersen Island, which you can see from station, have their eggs and they will likely be hatching in the coming weeks. There are Gentoo and Chinstrap penguin colonies on some of the surrounding islands that only the birders, the 2 women on station studying penguins, can visit. Hopefully, they’ll need some extra hands when the chicks start hatching, and I might get a chance to go out and help them.

We have frequent visits from local Gentoo penguins on station and we often see them swimming around our boat when were are out sampling, as we did this morning. These are juvenile Gentoos that haven’t yet settled down with a mate to make babies. It is so much fun when they stop in and say hello. Yesterday one jumped out of the water right next to Alex on the rocks while we were out hiking. Another was watching our fire drill today. They are such silly little critters. This is a great photo that Scott took of a Gentoo wandering off on his own, looks like he is taking a hike somewhere.

photo: Scott Sternbach

As for the seals down here in our neck of the woods, there are: Elephants seals, Weddell seals, Crabeater seals, Fur seals, and Leopard seals. We have seen most of these guys around already. Usually, there is an Elephant seal spotted hanging around on Torgersen Island with all the penguins, as “Elephant Rocks,” another island is quite close. There are many of them making a ruckus on that island. Periodically, we see a Crabeater or Leopard seal in the area as well. As you can see in the photo, Leopard seals are rather Reptilian looking. Not quite as cute and cuddly as some of the others.

Leopard Seal photo: Scott Sternbach

Many of you Californians have already seen many Elephant seals, but have you seen one that is laughing before? Check out this awesome photo.

Laughing Elephant Seal