Category: Seals
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Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) started arriving in late January. At first just a few. Some people saw one. Others hoped to see one. More and more showed up, and soon everyone saw them. They're mostly subadult males. Teenagers. I worried about them because many seemed skinny. Eat more krill! They're eared seals, in the…
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Mid-morning break at Palmer Station, in the galley, somebody on the All Call said “Whales.” Then someone said “Minkes” but as the whales hurtled closer, everyone said “Orcas!” People rose and exclaimed. We could see tall fins of orcas racing toward us. They swam into Hero Inlet. Palmer overlooks Hero Inlet, and the deck on…
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Some scientists (Robert L. Pitman and John W. Durban, to name a few) were cruising Antarctic waters. They were looking for killer whales, a.k.a. orcas.* (Why don't they invite me? I love this stuff.) The researchers wished to document a crafty behavior seen among some seal-eating orcas, in which they team up to knock seals…
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I am not a patient person. In wilderness settings, where my significant other likes to stand and gaze at the natural beauty all around, I want to explore, walk, clamber up things, turn things over, scurry and sniff. I can't repose the way he can. I would take the view that we just have two…
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