DAY 4
January 8th
Today is my last day on the ice and we are boarding the Terra Bus for a tour of the wild life on Antarctica. Personally I could never be an animal and live in these harsh conditions, my life would be miserable and I would always be cold. The first type of animal that we are going to look for is the incredible emperor penguin. Our tour guid Matt was explaining all the things they have to do to survive in this harsh climate because Emperor Penguins live in Antarctica all year round. I found this amazing because it is summer here right now but the temperature is still -14 degrees outside, I can’t imagine what winter would be like.
We have now arrived to see our first wide life experience. The colony of Emperor Penguins is massive, it is like a sea of black. Truthfully Emperor penguins aren’t just black they have a big whit stomach, a black back and head and a tinge of yellow around the neck. Personally I think they are very gorgeous looking animals. They are found in costal areas because their food source is in the ocean, there main diet is fish but they also eat crustaceans such as krill and squid. I wouldn’t like to be a fish because with there water proof feathers,there speed and agility and there amazing structure of there bodies, a fish wouldn’t have much of a chance. They can dive up to 156 metres deep and for most mammals they would get serious issues in there bones at that depth but the emperor penguin has strong and heavy bones to withstand the high pressure.
The Emperor penguin is thinly bird hat breeds in Antarctica during the winter. The emperor penguins rely on each other to survive. The mother of the egg gives the egg to the father to incubate and look after during the two months that the mother is away finding food to give to the chick when it hatches. I would have never trusted my dad to look after me for two months when I was a baby but obviously they have to have trust in order to survive.The mother collects food in ocean for about two months but in that time the males are trying to survive the harsh winter. The males all huddle together for warmth with wind chills f up to -60 degrees and an average temperature of -30 degrees. Because the Emperor penguins don’t have a nest they have to rely on voice call to find there partner and chick.
The mother feeds the chick with the food she has collected but saves some for herself while the dad leaves and goes to find food for himself because in these two months the da diets no food what so ever. Well that’s it for Emperor penguins I am now an expert on them. It has been an amazing experience to see such a big colony in real life but now we are heading off to find a leopard seal.
Leopard seals are hard to find because they are individual animals so they don’t live in a colony and can sometimes be quiet hard to see but today is our lucky day because we have just spotted one lying near the shore sun backing, not that it is very warm out there anyway. They are very weird looking animals but also good to look at. I can see why they are called a leopard seal because they have the spots on there back like a a leopard. Leopard seals have very sharp teeth and they are not like other teeth either because a leopard seals teeth are designed to filter krill, and to rip through tough leather like skin on there prey.
Unlike the Emperor penguin the leopard seal migrates to and from Antarctica. In the summer it comes here o breed, look after there pups and feed int he rich waters surrounding Antarctica. In the winter the leopard seals travel north to the sub-Antarctic islands and some have even been found on the southern coasts of Argentina, chile, Australia and New Zealand. Well the leopard seal was not putting on a real big show for us but it was amazing to be able to see such an amazing creature in the wild.
This is our last animal that we are going to find today but I think It is the most exciting one and I am rally keen to see one. We are boarding a boat to try and find the amazing Killer Whale. The tour guide told us that we might not get the opportunity to see one but he would tell us the information. A male Killer Whale can grow up to 9.75 metres and a female can from up to 8.5 metres in length. Killer whales can also weigh up to 60 tonnes. They feed on’ squid, fish, penguins, seals and even big whales. The only reason that they can hunt such big prey is because they are pack animals, so they hunt in a big group. It is defiantly a big advantage for them because there prey has very little chance of escaping a big group of Killer Whales. Killer Whales are the only whales that have been seen to breed in Antarctica.
Males are often the ones to hunt more dangerous prey and the females still hunt with the makes but might not get as involved when it is dangerous. The females are the ones who teach there calves the hunting techniques that are in there colony. The calves that are born in the group will stay in the group forever. Killer Whales communicate by voice call and each different group of Killer Whales has a distinctive call that is past on through generations. Just when we thought our luck was over we saw a group of Killer Whales playing in the water together. They were leaping out of the water and we watched them for at least half an hour.
I am now on the plane back to Hobart. My trip here has been absolutely amazing and I am such a lucky person to be able to come here. I also realise how lucky I am because I didn’t realise what people and animals have to do to survive here, so my trip here has made me think of how lucky I am to have a warm house and nice furniture.Well that’s the end of my incredible trip.
By Ella De Campo
ella de campo 