[Leica] There Be Beasties...

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

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