Today we have more photos from Antarctica taken by Peter Klaver, who recently sent us some pictures of penguins as well as of Iguazu Falls. Here some the larger animals from Antarctica. Peter’s captions are indented; click on the photos to enlarge them.
In followup to the photos of Iguazu Falls, I hereby send you photos of when Rachel and I had moved from Argentina to Antarctica. We were surprised that the cold environment there supports so many animals. Below are photos of the bigger animals we saw there. Latin names are once again courtesy of Rachel Wilmoth.Antarctic fur seals, Arctocephalus gazella: the seal species we saw most. A short clip of the seal in the first photos chasing some penguins is here. [JAC: the link is safe]
This is a crabeater seal, Lobodon carcinophaga. Our guide told us that the English name is a bit off, as they don’t eat crabs but krill. You can see it sliding off a small iceberg here.
One evening the ship’s intercom reported that there was a pod of Orcas, Orcinus orca, near the ship, hunting. I think there were about four of them.
I don’t know what type of seal this is. But it had a nasty wound on its head. I don’t know if it got that from a rival dring a fight over mating right, a ship’s propellor, or something else still.
The largest animals we saw were humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae. Most of the time we saw them sleeping, which they do while turning off half their brain while the other half controls surfacing and breathing. But occasionally you see one diving.
The one below is taking a dump while submerging; see the orange material to the right of its tail:
Crabeater seals have incisors and canines resembling those of other carnivores but the shape of their molars and premolars is pretty unusual, They are trident- or “multident”-shaped and serve to sieve krill.
Nice photos, thanks for sharing these. And: Lucky you!
Very interesting, Peter. Thanks for sharing your trip.