Youtube: "A baby elephant seal curious, brave, and too comfortable with and among people it turns out. Petermann island, Antarctica. Below is a longer description in response to viewers' comments.
Antarctica is remote wilderness (yes, even the Peninsula that gets the lion's share of small but increasing tourist numbers). There is no baiting, feeding, tracking or approaching the animals to facilitate interaction with tourists. All close interaction happens by chance and is initiated by the animal itself. The number of people landing at each site is closely monitored (no more than 100 allowed at once) and they leave no footprint (no flags, food, or any waste).
Petermann island is visited mainly for the scenery and large bird colonies (two penguin kinds, blue-eyed shags etc.). Not seals. Seals in large numbers are more easily observed on the beaches in the sub-antarctic islands. That is why I was thrilled by this spontaneous encounter with the baby seal on a not-so-large piece of rock.
Equipment used: Canon HF100 camera with a Raynox 6600 wide angle lens. [this rewording ought to satisfy viewers that no seals were annihilated using no halo weapons.]"
9 Comments
legacy0100says...OMG, definitely one of my favorites of all time. Remind me to promote!!!
ps. Skip to 2:50 if you want to skip the first part.
antsays...*water
siftbotsays...Adding video to channels (Water) - requested by ant.
GeeSussFreeKsays...At fist I was like, aww look at the cute little seal. Then we get a view of him with the people in frame, and I am like, what a fat baby!
legacy0100says...*promote
siftbotsays...Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Thursday, May 17th, 2012 7:13am PDT - promote requested by legacy0100.
Stormsingersays...>> ^GeeSussFreeK:
At fist I was like, aww look at the cute little seal. Then we get a view of him with the people in frame, and I am like, what a fat baby!
If you were living in water a degree or two above freezing, you'd be fat too...or you wouldn't be living at all.
Sarzysays...*cute!
siftbotsays...Adding video to channels (Cute) - requested by Sarzy.
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