We watched these 2 youngish Elephant seals practicing to be big boys. The one on the left is the older, dominant one, I suspect - his proboscis is larger. The juvenile on the side was checking them out. Watch and learn boy!
Aww what a face! Most seals they say have cat faces (the Leopards have dog faces). You can see the spots where the eyebrows and whiskers are. Adorable sleepy baby - huge but still fairly young.
This guy's, actually girl’s face looks like a lion. Quite regal. The females don’t have the proboscis nose.
A young man checking out the visitors. Almost a smile. Thanks mate!
You might think this is meant to intimidate, but no he’s just yawning. Look inside that mouth, he has no problem with anaemia! You can see a largish chamber on the top of his nose; they grow bigger than that I'm told.
Macquarie Island is home to a number of penguin species and seals - Elephant and a few different species of fur seals. I was very keen to see the Southern Elephant seals which cluster on this rather special island. They are huge and rather intimidating, the males especially. The males can measure up to 7m and weigh in at 5000kg. I got as close as I dared taking pix and videos only to hearing some heavy breathing right behind me - yikes! Fortunately a youngster (just 2-3m!!) flopping after me, or simply trying to get to mum - maybe. Don’t run Heather!!!
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