NOT A GOOD LOOK

We think of Antarctica as being the last pristine wilderness, and to a large extent it is. But signs of human damage are becoming more commonplace. The Albatrosses are dying in numbers as a result of illegal long line fishing, and washed up garbage is becoming more evident. It's a depressing sight to see.

This fur seal was modelling a piece of discarded rope like a tie, and we had to catch the critter and remove the rope before it became a real problem for him. This was surprisingly difficult, as seals are slippery, manoeverable, and have sharp teeth.

He didn't really want to cooperate, but it had to be done for his own good. Apart from anything else, a light blue tie was never going to work with those muted earth tones.

KING PENGUINS

There are few things to compare with the sights and smells of a penguin colony. This one on South Georgia was home to about 750,000 King penguins. That's what I was told, anyway. Presumably at some point a scientist had counted them- that is after all what scientists do. But given that individual penguins look pretty much identical and that they are constantly waddling around and generally honking at each other, it's difficult to see how even the maddest of scientists could actually count them. It's my deeply held suspicion that some lazy boffin may have rounded this figure up to make his life easier. Also, I spotted a dead one, so it should really be 749,999.

King penguins are largely monogamous from breeding season to breeding season. One goes off in search of fish, returning to regurgitate it for their ever hungry youngsters, while the other stays behind to look after things. For a penguin, a fishing trip must provide a welcome relief from the packed, noisy and lets face it, fishy smells of the rookery. So they tend to be pretty jaunty on these trips. They enter and leave the water in groups, in case of lurking leopard seals or orcas.

This is an entirely new subspecies, discovered by me, which I named the short-ass king penguin. Or it may just have been an ordinary one standing in a dip.

There is a constant rivalry between king penguins and southern fur seal pups, who spend a lot of time niggling at each other. The seals are aggressive little tykes, fast on their flippers and with needle like teeth that they don't hesitate to use. The penguins have a sharp beak, the advantage of numbers and, as clearly seen in this photograph, fish breath.