Leopard Seal!!!

Leopard seal!!! Leopard seal!!! Ok ok, so as you can tell I'm excited about a leopard seal. Why? Well, after 12 months on Macquarie Island where a number of my fellow expeditioners got to see them, but I missed out simply by being somewhere else on the island, I finally saw one in its habitat. They are beautiful looking animals, even for a predator. He looked fairly fit and healthy, though seemed to have a little bit of a moult going on.

I went walking out on the sea ice this afternoon with Matt to check out this blob of a seal we could see from station and lo and behold, there he was, a 2 - 2.5m leopard seal. As we approached we cautiously kept our distance as they are near the top of the food chain around here, probably second only to orca, to be blunt. They can grow to around 3.5 - 4m, so this guy probaly still has a little more work to do. This guy happened to get a little curious about the two things nearby, so he made his way towards us to check us out, but we kept our distance. No point ending up as food.

One of the more intriguing things was the sounds this guy was making. He had some growls and snorts for us, as seals tend to do, but there were also these chirps and whistles that sounded very similar to a penguin's call....

Look at his flip-top head and sharp teeth.

Hopefully I'm lucky enough to get some photos of one while it's in the water and maybe even feeding. Hopefully I'm farenough away not to be considered food.... Actually, seeing a breeding area would be fascinating too.