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National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen is one lucky man. Not only did he get to swim and take photos of a 12-foot leopard seal in the Antarctic (and didn’t get eaten), he was actually "adopted" by it!
I slipped into the water, terrified of what might happen, and I swam up to this leopard seal. My legs were shaking and I had dry mouth. Right away she dropped the penguin. She came up to me and she opened her mouth … and her head is twice as wide as a grizzly bear’s head. She’s huge. She took my whole head and my camera inside her head and did this threat display.
But then the most remarkable thing happen. She went off and got me a live penguin. She came up and she started to feed me a penguin. She kept letting these live penguins go and the penguin would shoot past me and she’d look disgusted as she go by me. She did this over and over.
And then I think she realized that I was this useless predator in her ocean, probably going to starve to death and I think she became quite panicked and she got me weak penguins then dead penguins …
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
This sailfish is keeping an eye on group of sardines that he and some 100 other sailfish have driven together to form a ball the size of an elephant.
Sailfish hunt in packs and work together to drive bait fish up from the depths to shallow sunlit water where it’s easier to see them.
When the ball is dense enough, they will drive into it with the long bills and startle the bait fish by opening their big dorsal fins (the "sail" of the sailfish) with a sudden whoosh, and at the same time they flash irridescent colors along their bodies.
They use these scare techniques to separate out smaller, more manageable groups of fish for easier eating. You can see these spectacular fish driving and cutting a baitball in this video, as photographer Paul Nicklen explains what’s going on.
Photo by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic
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Leopard seals are aggressive predators, and National Geo photographer Paul Nicklen didn’t quite know what to expect when he slid into the freezing Antarctic water with the largest leopard seal he’d ever seen. The leopard seal took Nicklen’s head and camera into her mouth. But he couldn’t believe what happened next.
Watch this video to find out.
