[Leica] There Be Beasties...

[imra at iol.ie (Douglas Barry)]

"Praying" is the best for me, Jayanand and what do you mean by "They are 
surprisingly fast on land". How fast is surprising? They look so cumbersome!

Douglas

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jayanand Govindaraj" <jayanand at gmail.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>; "PSM" 
<psm-1857 at googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2014 1:19 PM
Subject: [Leica] There Be Beasties...


> 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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