Antarctica: Penguins, seals and whales
From the deck of a cruise ship, Antarctic vistas often appear stark, remote, frozen and lifeless. But at sea level, and on land, the animal residents of Antarctica came out in force.
Over five days on and around the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands, we saw three types of penguins, two kinds of seals, and three types of whales.
Our most breathtaking encounter was when this minke whale surfaced about 15 feet from our kayak. (Luckily Lisa was wearing a GoPro camera.)
One day, our cruise ship was surrounded by a pod of at least 60 fin whales. Another day, a young humpback whale kept pace with the ship for more than half an hour, breeching over and over again. Scientists don’t know why whales leap like this, but it sure looks like play.
Penguin-watching was endlessly fascinating. We learned to recognize the gentoo penguin by its orange beak and its call like a braying donkey. Frequently gentoos nested side-by-side with chinstrap penguins, named for the band of black around their necks that makes them look like they’re wearing a helmet. We also saw slightly larger Adélie penguins, which have a distinctive white ring around their eyes.
We saw penguin chicks in various stages of development as we moved south to north, from cooler to warmer nesting areas. The penguins’ solemn waddle, with wings outstretched, made us smile as they traveled “highways” stamped out in the snow. From our Zodiacs we watched them swim, porpoising in and out of the water.
In a scene right out of National Geographic, we watched gentoos and chinstraps defend their chicks against predatory skuas, brown gull-sized birds that circled the nesting sites, waiting for a chance to pounce. When a skua came too close, the flock of penguins faced it down together, emitting menacing hisses, like angry cats.
