An expedition team in Puerto Deseado, Argentina, were wondering across the coastline when they came across a huge gathering of elephant seals making a racket on the rocks.
“Along the rocky shoreline, we had an unexpected encounter with a haul-out of southern elephant seals – the largest seals in the world,” says Andi Cross, who founded and leads the Edges of Earth Expedition.
She had been exploring the “wild and raw” landscape of Isla Pingüino – off the coast of the Santa Cruz province – with local nonprofit Por El Mar when they were surprised by the huge group of noisy animals.
The world’s largest seal species, males elephant seals can grow up to five metres long and 1,800 kilos.
"Seeing them piled together on the rock was surreal,” she says. “Their deep, guttural vocalisations echoed across the beach as they jostled for space, while juvenile sea lions flopped clumsily between the ocean and the sun-warmed shore.”
Sea lion vs seal: what's the difference?
Image and video credit: Edges of Earth, Andi Cross
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