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1/ Young male fur seal selects himself for an
afternoon of fun by the sea |
 These
pictures were taken one afternoon in the Antarctic spring (October)
when I went for a walk from the base on Signy island to the Gourlay
Peninsula, about a mile and half as the skua flies, but it always
felt a lot further than this due to the incredibly rugged nature of
Signy's terrain.Gourlay is a favourite place
for the wildlife lover with huge nesting colonies of adélie and
chinstrap penguins, loads of other birds and plenty of seals,
particularly fur seals.
Many of the seals are young males, unable or not old
enough to mate, so they tend to hang around together. For many people
their first encounters with fur seals are rather disconcerting as they
run along towards you on their flippers for a few strides before
stretching their neck out and growling at you while showing some quite
impressive canines. |
2/ Warming up by playing in the sea
with a mate |
 Walking
along the shore-line on rocks between about a half and two meters above
sea-level puts you in a great position to see into the crystal clear
water and more importantly, to see the seals that are swimming and
playing about in the sea. These are young and very playful sub-adults.
The great thing about this situation is that you can get really close to
the seals, almost as close as you can get at the zoo without even
trying. Squat down and they carry on playing as if you're not even
there.There are few animals
that seem to enjoy playing in the water quite as much as young fur seals
do. |
3/ Initial feint, come on then, lets
play! |
 As
I walked along the rocky shore, there were seals just on the land side
away from the rocks and the occasional seal asleep on the rocks.
Most of the time I could sneak around these without them knowing I was
there, but this was a young seal I inadvertently woke up.
To start with he made a run towards me as
many seals did, then gave up as they realised you were walking away. For
some reason though, this one wouldn't give up and kept following me - I
put on a bit of a sprint to clear some space between us (they aren't
very quick for very long on land), but still he kept following me.
Eventually I did the same back to him, turned and ran towards him
thinking that would be the end of it (you don't really want one sneaking
up on you as those teeth and in particular the rich bacterial mix in the
mouth can give you a lot of grief).
However, this one seemed to sense some
fun in the offing and in a state of some excitement dived into the sea
re-surfacing very close, giving me a fright and resulting in a quick
sprint land-wards! |
4/ Yeah, well you don't scare me
anyhow |
 He
clambered up onto a rock and sat there a while eyeing me up and trying
to appear calm and disinterested but actually very curious - I at the
same time was doing exactly the same!
Wild animals aren't supposed to act like this, he was just like my
dog back home when he's woken up and decides to try and get you involved
in a game or play fight of some description.
There was only one thing for it, take
a run towards him as a feint and see how he reacted. |
5/ Safe distance, sizes the situation
up |
He jumped into the sea and to my relief I didn't slip
on the wet rocks (maybe not the best place to do it) and become a fur
seal chew-toy.
So while I was better on the land, quicker and more
agile, he of course was master in his element and I couldn't even go
there in what I was wearing as despite it being a relatively warm sunny
day, the sea temperature was at about 0C.
So he swam about a bit, probably trying to entice me
into the water in a way that worked with his seal-mates when they get
each other to play chasing games in the sea. I read this picture as a
"well you couldn't even catch my tail flippers" type of message, then
waving the flippers at me as a taunt. |
6/ Blowing bubbles and seeing under
water and the surface at the same time |
 I
love this picture, it's so ethereal the way the seal is right there in
front of the camera, but also so distant as well. I like the bubbles
streaming from the one submerged nostril, the fact that he has a view of
above the water and below the water and the abstract nature of the
picture. It's just what I'd do if I was a seal.
I was on a rocky ledge at this point
around 1.5m above the water while pointing my camera down and following
the seal around, Difficult to get a shot as the water was so dark and
the seal so fast. |
7/ OK - game on! |
 OK,
so we've eyed each other up, done a few rushes towards each other and
established the intention to play and have fun, so off we go!
This is the very satisfactory result of
my rush at the seal causing him to dive into the sea from the rock to
the bottom right. The picture isn't perfect, but I was pleased as I had
the camera in one hand, was trying not to follow the seal into the water
and got the shot off too.
He's just surfaced swam round and is
showing his reaction to my momentarily gaining the upper hand in this
game of chase. |
8/ You think you're so far away - you
don't know how high I can jump from the sea! |
 Being
easily pleased and sensing victory, I of course then became very
complacent. Thinking the seal now had to somehow get back to where
he was I prepared the camera for a few more shots and just managed to
get this one off of him launching himself back onto the platform I'd
just chased him from.Now I knew
that seals were very fast and agile and could jump out of the water, but
for some reason, shooting up over 1.5m from the surface and landing at
my feet wasn't the expected outcome at least as far as I was concerned!
For my fur seal friend here, it was evidently not only possible, but
also an integral part of his cunning plan.
No pictures of him at my feet as it
was my turn to high-tail it. Despite our now forming a friendship, I've
seen enough fur seals play-fight with too much involvement from those
teeth to want to go the whole hog with him. Getting away from tooth
range was quite easy as you just run uphill, that puts the seals at a
real disadvantage as they can lollop uphill, but not run. I had to stop
before too long though as the uphill led to a smooth mossy area with
many other sleeping fur seals which I didn't want to tread on. |
9/ Arrrr! |
 We
played like this for about 30 minutes in all walking about half a mile
along the shore line in the process. Some of the time it was more
energetic, at others less so. Here he is in the shallows having done
another lunge from the depths to near-by getting me wet from his
bow-wave in the process.Despite
the apparent aggression it was all very good natured and if I squatted
down, I could calm things for a while. Seals spend most of their time
horizontal, rearing themselves up and gaining height over another seal
is a sign of intimidation or aggression. This is why they often
respond aggressively to humans walking nearby - they feel they are being
challenged. Losing height gives them the message you are not a threat
and usually causes them to calm down. |
10/ Cruising away into the sunset,
what a day! |
 All
good things come to an end however and it was probably my in ability
to follow him into the sea that eventually caused my new found friend to
take himself off sea-ward probably in search of a more able playmate.
A wonderful memory of a real connection
with a wild animal in its natural environment. Why he decided to try and
play like this I'm not sure, but it was towards the end of my time in
Antarctica and I'd probably learned a lot more fur seal body-language
than I realised. |
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