[Leica] There Be Beasties...

[hopsternew at gmail.com (Geoff Hopkinson)]

Super set, Jayanand with 'scratch' and 'prayer' particular standouts for
me. I don't know about visitor numbers, I guess that they might be quite
high and perhaps the animals are largely immune. In National Parks here
(with smaller colonies of Sea Lions) groups are strictly limited and
escorted and even stopping to frame a shot is frowned upon.


Cheers
Geoff
http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman


On 7 February 2014 23:19, Jayanand Govindaraj <jayanand at gmail.com> wrote:

> Elephant Seals look like prehistoric beasts, something out of a fantasy
> novel, or an RPG computer game, weird and sort of out of this world. In
> Gold Harbour, there were hundreds of juvenile males, most of them lying in
> groups, moulting their skin, piled close to each other, in a pungent
> mixture of mud, water and their excreta. Their mating season gets over in
> November, so the 5 tonne fully grown adult males were all out to sea,
> feeding and replenishing their reserves. They are quite amazing beasts, and
> radio tracking has now confirmed that they dive to 5000+ feet in the ocean,
> resurface for half a minute and dive again to the same depth. Nobody has as
> yet cottoned on to the body chemistry that allows them to do that, and
> research is still active around this.
>
> Here a King Penguin inspects one such group:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3476.jpg.html
>
> Usually, their inactivity is marred only by a leisurely scratch on a
> particularly itchy bit of moulting skin:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3568.jpg.html
>
> They let you get quite close to them, just looking curiously back at you
> with those limpid eyes:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3648.jpg.html
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3781.jpg.html
>
> Some pray on the waters edge (-:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3714.jpg.html
>
> But these are juveniles, and the testosterone flow is strong, and
> periodically they test their strength with each other, in training to
> become Beachmasters when they grow up, as well as decide the pecking order
> within a group. They joust on land:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3455.jpg.html
>
> At waters edge:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3532.jpg.html
>
> They come in all shapes, sizes and colours:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3872.jpg.html
>
> The standard move is to rear back, mouths agape:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3890.jpg.html
>
> Then lunge and thud into each other:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3921.jpg.html
>
> Frequently ending in a boxer's clinch:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3850.jpg.html
>
> They are so preoccupied, you can get in close, on foot, reasonably safely:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3962.jpg.html
>
> Closer:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_4016.jpg.html
>
> And closer still:
>
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/antarctica/Antarctica_20140113_3937.jpg.html
>
> They are surprisingly fast on land, and one has to keep an eye out for
> accidentally being trampled over, which with that weight and bulk.....(-:
>
> Please see LARGE
>
> Comments and criticism, as ever, welcome
>
> Cheers
> Jayanand
>
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