Lovely leopard seals

It’s winter. Much of the wildlife that surrounded us during summer has now dispersed. Most of the birds have left, only a handful of penguins remain, and I can walk around the beaches with only sporadic instead of consistent hassle from the few remaining fur seals. One exception to this quietening down trend has been the leopard seals that started arriving in the early months of winter. I’m the lucky man who gets to stalk them.


Maurice showing off the dental work (photo Cian Luck)

Every day in winter, come rain or shine snow, I walk the lep round in search of spotted seals. The route starts near the Special Study Beach (my summer office) and hugs the coast around Freshwater Inlet, Main Bay, and ends at Evermann Cove. Depending on the leps, the round takes me a couple hours to walk. While I do this I try to keep my eyes glued to the sea as some leps can hang around in the same spot for hours (helpful) while others might only show themselves for a few seconds at a time (less helpful). Once I see one it’s my job to take pictures of the lep so that we can compare them to our database and identify which seal it is.  


My daily round on the left, and me playing leopard seal paparazzi on the right (photo Jerrgy Gillham)

The underside of each lep is dotted with a unique pattern of markings so this is quite doable, and some are even recognisable by sight. The tricky part is when a lep cunningly hides these markings by stubbornly keeping their face and belly underwater. I once followed a lep for an hour and a half in the rain and it never showed me more than its back. Thankfully as much as they enjoy this kind of carry-on they also love floating vertically in the water with either their head or tail sticking in the air. This makes my life a lot easier, as the throat is often the easiest way to identify a lep, and many of these leps are sporting some fetching flipper tags.


Maurice showing off his spots (photos Cian Luck)

The underside of each lep is dotted with a unique pattern of markings so this is quite doable, and some are even recognisable by sight. The tricky part is when a lep cunningly hides these markings by stubbornly keeping their face and belly underwater. I once followed a lep for an hour and a half in the rain and it never showed me more than its back. Thankfully as much as they enjoy this kind of carry-on they also love floating vertically in the water with either their head or tail sticking in the air. This makes my life a lot easier, as the throat is often the easiest way to identify a lep, and many of these leps are sporting some fetching flipper tags.


This was as close as Max would allow us (photo Cian Luck)

Leps have a fearsome reputation. And it is fully deserved. They are top marine predators. Around BI they eat lots of fur seals, plenty of penguins, and they attack any bird that tries to steal their food. They strip the meat off their kills by thrashing it violently above water. This is an awesome display of power. They’re also huge. Max is the biggest lep I’ve measured at a bit over 3 metres, but Keeley, who I’m yet to meet on land, has measured in at over a 3.5m. I’m 6’1. If I laid down next to her, twice, we’d be about the same length. 

Young Jim snacking on a fur seal and Maurice telling a Giant Petrel to F off (photos Cian Luck)

But what less people realise about leps, and maybe I’m a bit biased here, is that they’re also lovely. They have genuine personalities and some of them are so chilled out. Maurice is the lep I meet most often and he’s super mellow. If I sit near (not at) the water’s edge he’ll often give me a good look (making eye contact with a lep is amazing) and then go back to doing whatever he was doing. Young Jim used to be known as Jumpy Jim because he got scared by people and ran off whenever they were near, but he’s calmed down a lot this year and simply watches me with a wary eye when I walk past. Max doesn’t like you being within touching distance on land, but he has no problem with you sitting five feet away. And every time I see Keeley she’s doing what she always does; feck all.

Clockwise from top left: Maurice, Young Jim, Keeley, and Max (photos Cian Luck)

So in summary, leps are great. They command respect, they have killer personalities, and they get me out the door each day. Long live seals.

Irrefutable evidence that leopard seals are lovely. His name is Gil (photo Cian Luck)