- A trip to the end of the earth – Falklands, South Georgia & Antarctica–Explorers & Kings
- Ushuaia–Fin del Mundo
- Ushuaia–Day 2
- Waiting for my ship to come in…
- Come sail away…
- Day #1 & 2 – En route to the Falklands
- Day #3 – West Point Island & Saunders Island, The Falklands
- Day # 4 – Stanley–more British than Britain
- Day # 7 – Right Whale Bay & Salisbury Plain–Kings, kings & more kings
- Day #8 – In the footsteps of Shackleton
- Day #9 – Elephants & Kings – St. Andrew’s Bay & Gold Harbour
- Day #10 – Cooper Bay & Drygalski Fjord
- Day #13 – Elephant Island
- Day #14 – Setting foot on Antarctica
- Day #15 – Whales, whales and more whales – a “Tail” of a perfect day
- Day # 16 – Deception Island & Half Moon Bay
- Day 19 & 20 – Buenos Aires
- Antarctica Photo Gallery
Another busy (and early) morning with a zodiac cruise before breakfast and a landing afterwards at St. Andrew’s Bay. St. Andrew’s Bay has the largest King penguin colony on South Georgia, with over 100,000 breeding pairs and also has one of the largest Elephant seal populations, with an estimated 6,000 breeding females at the peak. And yes, it’s a little noisy…
This elephant seal is an immature male, bigger than a weaner but still not fully grown. And, of course, some king penguins standing around looking as though they are contemplating something very serious.
This guy is huge, but still not fully mature. The Southern Elephant Seal is the largest of the seals with mature males averaging about 7,000 lbs; they can be as long as 20 feet and up to 8,800 lbs! The females are much smaller, the males can be as much as 10 times the size of the female.
At one end of St. Andrew’s beach a glacier reaches down to the sea, a lovely backdrop for yet another King penguin picture!
The (Southern) elephant seals despite their size and blubber (which was still rendered for oil as late as the mid sixties) are very strong and surprisingly agile on land.
The younger males practice fighting for the day they might have their own harem of typically 40 to 50 females; some have up to 100 females. Every year, the breeding males (beachmasters) return to the beach in advance of the females. When the females arrive, they give birth almost immediately and nurse the pup for about 23 days. They breed, wean the pup a few days later and return to sea to feed (having fasted the entire time) and, 11 months later, the cycle begins again.
Elephant seals go through what they call a “catastrophic moult” – every year, they shed their old skin and grow a new one. While they are undergoing this moult, they’re unable to go to sea to feed. The process takes 3 to 5 weeks, during which time they huddle together on the beach to preserve their body heat. At this time of year, it’s the immature males and females; the breeding males and females have returned to sea to feed after breeding and will return in January/February once they have restored their blubber reserves.
Hunted almost to extinction, the populations have recovered nicely in South Georgia.
The penguins also moult, shedding their old feathers for new. While this is happening, they aren’t waterproof and can’t swim (which means no food), so they also huddle together on land for warmth and to conserve energy.
A budding romance?
A very regal King penguin
In the afternoon we visited Gold Harbour where we had a landing & zodiac cruise. Gold Harbour is home to 25,000 breeding pairs of Kings, a small Gentoo colony and a large number of southern elephant seals. I’ve said this before, but it’s really difficult to comprehend the vastness of these penguin colonies until you experience it.
Gentoos nesting in the tussock with the elephant seals
Sleeping beauties – he looks happy doesn’t he?
This is a really bad hair day
Those are not rocks!
Loved the videos. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to see so many penguins and seals all in one place. As always, amazing photos Kathy.
Glad you have added some videos. like Susan, I have difficulty imagining so many penguins in one place.
Enjoyed ++ Just wonderful shots and info. Thanks Kathy