since the time of Shackleton these seals
have had a bad reputation Shackleton in
fact used so the stories go he used to
be use a man as bait he’d put him on the
ice and the leopard seal would lunge out
of the water at him and shoot it and
another guy would shoot it and then they
would keep it for dog food and I was
like no these seals aren’t that vicious
and and and you hear all these stories
and tragically a scientist was killed by
it by a leopard seal in 1994 2004 crease
ad situation but I still wanted to give
this animal a fair shake I wanted to go
down to Antarctica and get in the water
with as many leopard seals as I could
just to try and understand them and so I
worked with my friend gora and elma from
Sweden who who has a lot of experience
with leopard seals and together we were
going to go on this little journey to
try and solve the mystery of these seals
to see if they were misunderstood if
they really were vicious beasts and they
also eat Happy Feet you know it’s we you
know we’re very emotional species you
know we we think penguins are cute and
we think leopard seals are ugly
therefore leopard seals are bad
penguins are good it doesn’t work like
that the seal doesn’t know he’s cute or
ugly leopard seal I mean the penguin
doesn’t know he’s cute I mean this is
just how the ecosystem unfolds this is
just all part of the food chain and
leopard seals are all so big I mean
you’re thinking ringed seals right
you’re thinking 100-pound seal these
guys are over a thousand pounds and this
was a massive female leopard seal that
gowron’s in the water with so we arrived
in Antarctica and I was so stressed
about stressed out were we going to find
leopard seals to photograph in July was
like you know relax relax and so our
first day there we come around the
corner we love we anchor the sailboat
get in our dinghy we go around the
corner and there’s this massive female
leopard seal and she’s ripping the head
off this penguin shaking ups from side
to side these are the feet here trailing
behind she whips it back and forth to
turned it inside out so she can eat the
meat and it was pretty horrific there
was chunk there were chunks of meat in
the water
she came up underneath the boat she
rammed the penguin underneath the hull
of the boat almost knock
in the water we had to sit down she was
longer than our 12 foot long Zodiac boat
and that’s when you Don my guide said
it’s time for you to get in the water
yeah and I said and I and he’s just big
strong burly swede and very strong guy
and you know he’s a Thorat ativ
individual and I was like you know
forget that except I probably used a
different word starting with the letter
F and he’s like look at you complain
about your budget you complained about
not enough time blah blah blah now you
shut up and get in the water I present
you a bloody big beautiful leopard so no
get in the water and so I looked at him
I look at the leopard seal I’m trembling
I got dry mouth and I part my lips with
my snorkel and roll over the side of the
zodiac into the water with this seal
terrified I mean this is a big big
animal and this is the first thing she
does she comes shooting right over to me
and she engulfs my camera and inside her
entire mouth and you know again the
photographer instinct kicks in well I
mean here we are we might as well shoot
but you Don gave me great advice
he said if you get scared you close your
eyes and she’ll go away yeah so he
really did say that and the other advice
he gave me was stay with the penguin
yeah he would kept yelling that I could
hear him you know I’m breathing in my
snorkel my Adrenaline’s going he’s
yelling stay with the penguin cuz this
leopard seal is killing penguins and he
said if I stay with them I’ll get my
shots well the most amazing thing
happened she did this threat display for
a few minutes and then she completely
relaxed and I didn’t know what was gonna
happen next and she left I thought well
the show’s over and she came back and
she had a penguin by the feet and she
held it it was flapping and she let it
go penguins swam towards me and took off
she went after and caught it came back
and did it again she did this about 10
times in a dawned on me she’s trying to
feed me a penguin and I was like no it
can’t be but I thought well I’ll just
keep shooting I mean this picture here
was you know not a fluke I mean I had so
many chances to get this shot cuz she
kept trying to feed me this penguin and
I swear as she swam by me to get the
penguin that just swam away
she had this dejected look on her face
and she’d look over at me she’d swim by
grab the penguin and do it again and the
biologists him he doesn’t want to
anthropomorphize these situations but
that’s what it really appeared to be at
the time and then that didn’t work I
couldn’t catch the swimming penguin so
she grabbed the penguin and she made it
really tie
wore it down got it nice and exhausted
and then she kind of bobbed towards me
in this vertical position and she gently
let the penguin go in it swam away and
she went into this a few times that
didn’t work so she did this other thing
where she got a penguin and she got
extremely tired now and she ate every
penguin she did this to you felt bad for
the Penguins but this is what she does
they play with her food anyways so here
is she she’s on her back she’s sliding
down an iceberg and he’s really sort of
sexy belly like poses where she’s sort
of twirling around at the penguin and
then she’d come around like this and
then she had presented to me like that I
like that and I would sit there looking
at this penguin like I don’t know what
to do with this penguin and and that
didn’t work so she was getting
frustrated so she got me dead penguin
she would drown them and she would just
swim right up to me and just give me
dead penguins and then she just stopped
sometimes with a dead penguin floating
there in front of me and just stare at
me like are you for real this is all
happening in two days can you imagine
from this sheer terror of this animal
and yet on in the book on i-told-you-so
yeah and then this seal staring at me me
this is all unfolding very quickly and
that didn’t work I didn’t touch the dead
penguin so she grabbed penguins and
she’d flip him on top of my head so now
I have penguins on top of my head and
I’m sitting there just photographing and
you’ve got the feet hanging in front and
I’m just not moving I’m just shooting
now this is every photographers dream to
have a top predator like this trying to
force-feed you I mean it’s you know I
thought we were gonna fell fail this
story we ended up shooting this entire
story in two days cuz of this and then
she started to show frustration and I
started to get worried she’d come up to
me and she’d blow bubbles which is a
sign a threat display in the wild world
but she does blow bubbles and go back to
trying to feed me so I don’t know what
she was really trying to say and then
this one time she did this deep guttural
jackhammer sound she rolled upside down
on her back and she did this book of
goop goop goop goop really deep and I
could feel it vibrate through my whole
body and I was like oh I’m about to get
hit you know she’s upset now and what
had happened was another leopard seal
had snuck in behind me and she did a
threat display she chased it away it was
another big female she chased it away
and she grabbed its penguin and brought
his penguin back and gave it to me
you
have had a bad reputation Shackleton in
fact used so the stories go he used to
be use a man as bait he’d put him on the
ice and the leopard seal would lunge out
of the water at him and shoot it and
another guy would shoot it and then they
would keep it for dog food and I was
like no these seals aren’t that vicious
and and and you hear all these stories
and tragically a scientist was killed by
it by a leopard seal in 1994 2004 crease
ad situation but I still wanted to give
this animal a fair shake I wanted to go
down to Antarctica and get in the water
with as many leopard seals as I could
just to try and understand them and so I
worked with my friend gora and elma from
Sweden who who has a lot of experience
with leopard seals and together we were
going to go on this little journey to
try and solve the mystery of these seals
to see if they were misunderstood if
they really were vicious beasts and they
also eat Happy Feet you know it’s we you
know we’re very emotional species you
know we we think penguins are cute and
we think leopard seals are ugly
therefore leopard seals are bad
penguins are good it doesn’t work like
that the seal doesn’t know he’s cute or
ugly leopard seal I mean the penguin
doesn’t know he’s cute I mean this is
just how the ecosystem unfolds this is
just all part of the food chain and
leopard seals are all so big I mean
you’re thinking ringed seals right
you’re thinking 100-pound seal these
guys are over a thousand pounds and this
was a massive female leopard seal that
gowron’s in the water with so we arrived
in Antarctica and I was so stressed
about stressed out were we going to find
leopard seals to photograph in July was
like you know relax relax and so our
first day there we come around the
corner we love we anchor the sailboat
get in our dinghy we go around the
corner and there’s this massive female
leopard seal and she’s ripping the head
off this penguin shaking ups from side
to side these are the feet here trailing
behind she whips it back and forth to
turned it inside out so she can eat the
meat and it was pretty horrific there
was chunk there were chunks of meat in
the water
she came up underneath the boat she
rammed the penguin underneath the hull
of the boat almost knock
in the water we had to sit down she was
longer than our 12 foot long Zodiac boat
and that’s when you Don my guide said
it’s time for you to get in the water
yeah and I said and I and he’s just big
strong burly swede and very strong guy
and you know he’s a Thorat ativ
individual and I was like you know
forget that except I probably used a
different word starting with the letter
F and he’s like look at you complain
about your budget you complained about
not enough time blah blah blah now you
shut up and get in the water I present
you a bloody big beautiful leopard so no
get in the water and so I looked at him
I look at the leopard seal I’m trembling
I got dry mouth and I part my lips with
my snorkel and roll over the side of the
zodiac into the water with this seal
terrified I mean this is a big big
animal and this is the first thing she
does she comes shooting right over to me
and she engulfs my camera and inside her
entire mouth and you know again the
photographer instinct kicks in well I
mean here we are we might as well shoot
but you Don gave me great advice
he said if you get scared you close your
eyes and she’ll go away yeah so he
really did say that and the other advice
he gave me was stay with the penguin
yeah he would kept yelling that I could
hear him you know I’m breathing in my
snorkel my Adrenaline’s going he’s
yelling stay with the penguin cuz this
leopard seal is killing penguins and he
said if I stay with them I’ll get my
shots well the most amazing thing
happened she did this threat display for
a few minutes and then she completely
relaxed and I didn’t know what was gonna
happen next and she left I thought well
the show’s over and she came back and
she had a penguin by the feet and she
held it it was flapping and she let it
go penguins swam towards me and took off
she went after and caught it came back
and did it again she did this about 10
times in a dawned on me she’s trying to
feed me a penguin and I was like no it
can’t be but I thought well I’ll just
keep shooting I mean this picture here
was you know not a fluke I mean I had so
many chances to get this shot cuz she
kept trying to feed me this penguin and
I swear as she swam by me to get the
penguin that just swam away
she had this dejected look on her face
and she’d look over at me she’d swim by
grab the penguin and do it again and the
biologists him he doesn’t want to
anthropomorphize these situations but
that’s what it really appeared to be at
the time and then that didn’t work I
couldn’t catch the swimming penguin so
she grabbed the penguin and she made it
really tie
wore it down got it nice and exhausted
and then she kind of bobbed towards me
in this vertical position and she gently
let the penguin go in it swam away and
she went into this a few times that
didn’t work so she did this other thing
where she got a penguin and she got
extremely tired now and she ate every
penguin she did this to you felt bad for
the Penguins but this is what she does
they play with her food anyways so here
is she she’s on her back she’s sliding
down an iceberg and he’s really sort of
sexy belly like poses where she’s sort
of twirling around at the penguin and
then she’d come around like this and
then she had presented to me like that I
like that and I would sit there looking
at this penguin like I don’t know what
to do with this penguin and and that
didn’t work so she was getting
frustrated so she got me dead penguin
she would drown them and she would just
swim right up to me and just give me
dead penguins and then she just stopped
sometimes with a dead penguin floating
there in front of me and just stare at
me like are you for real this is all
happening in two days can you imagine
from this sheer terror of this animal
and yet on in the book on i-told-you-so
yeah and then this seal staring at me me
this is all unfolding very quickly and
that didn’t work I didn’t touch the dead
penguin so she grabbed penguins and
she’d flip him on top of my head so now
I have penguins on top of my head and
I’m sitting there just photographing and
you’ve got the feet hanging in front and
I’m just not moving I’m just shooting
now this is every photographers dream to
have a top predator like this trying to
force-feed you I mean it’s you know I
thought we were gonna fell fail this
story we ended up shooting this entire
story in two days cuz of this and then
she started to show frustration and I
started to get worried she’d come up to
me and she’d blow bubbles which is a
sign a threat display in the wild world
but she does blow bubbles and go back to
trying to feed me so I don’t know what
she was really trying to say and then
this one time she did this deep guttural
jackhammer sound she rolled upside down
on her back and she did this book of
goop goop goop goop really deep and I
could feel it vibrate through my whole
body and I was like oh I’m about to get
hit you know she’s upset now and what
had happened was another leopard seal
had snuck in behind me and she did a
threat display she chased it away it was
another big female she chased it away
and she grabbed its penguin and brought
his penguin back and gave it to me
you
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