The Marco Polo off Hovgaard Island
The Marco Polo off Hovgaard Island
On the island, which was, as expected, composed of large rocks, we saw lots of Gentoo Penguins. More importantly, however, we saw Elephant Seals on the edges of the island. The Elephant Seals were all young males, it seems. I watched three of them as they lay side by side on the stone at the edge of the island. They had their flippers around each others' backs, and they were for the most part pretty still. I believe that they were very aware of what was going on around them, and maybe a little frightened by all of the people. There was one seal in the water nearby, and he may have been thinking about coming out and joining the others, but he didn't as long as we were there.
Adolescent male elephant seals relaxing in the sun
Every so often, one of the seals would stretch and flail it's flippers, or look up, craning it's neck. They also flatulated a lot, expanding their bodies like balloons and then expelling the gas with a huge noise. Once, a penguin came to close to the group and one of the seals let out a bellow at it to get it to move off. The penguin wasn't phased much, and just kept on going by.
Waving to a friend in the water...
There was another, larger, seal on the other side of some rocks. It was by itself, and it looked up now and then at the people staring at it. Right when I came by with my camera, it yawned, so I caught that.
A big yawn