When I was in Northern California in April, I simply couldn't get enough of seals/sea lions. Any time I was by the coastline, I was hoping to hear barking and see some blubbery seals sunning themselves. I'm not quite sure how my obsession got started (most likely from frequent trips to the Central Park Zoo as a child), but I am happy to report that I spotted them in Santa Cruz, Carmel and San Francisco. However, unlike National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen (whose book Polar Obsession came out last week), I didn't get too close to any them and none of them tried to feed me a live penguin. That's right, a Leopard Seal tried to feed Nicklen a penguin (more than one, in fact) and he caught the whole thing on camera, since that's what nature photographers do.
Nicklen's video showcasing his incredible photos has already become a YouTube sensation, and it's not hard to see why: He's submerged in the water in Antarctica with a potentially vicious Leopard Seal (check out her teeth!) and she just wants to feed him. He's very lucky that she didn't think he was a penguin!
Wow, what an amazing story! Definitely worth watching this one. I wonder what raw penguin tastes like?!
Posted by: Caitlin | November 18, 2009 at 12:18 PM
I was there, Carmel and San Simeon, in August 2009,and all we saw were the'dumplings' sea lions lazing in the sun. Definately not the penguin eating types.
Posted by: Indra Chopra | November 18, 2009 at 10:38 PM
I guess seals must be in possession of a very advanced mindset. It doesn't make much sense to me that it'd try to keep another predator alive. Any other predator in the sea would either be a competitor for the food, or even an animal that would pray on the seal - such as the killer whale.
Maybe they're more like dolphins then I guess?
Still, sounds pretty amazing.
Posted by: Sander | November 20, 2009 at 12:44 PM
That's amazing! Wow!
Posted by: Angela K. Nickerson | November 25, 2009 at 11:53 AM