Up close and personal with a playful Leopard Seal in Antarctica. Photo by Paul Nicklen.
Paul Nicklen is used to getting the tough shots. Born and raised in one of the only non-Inuit families in a small Arctic village in Northern Canada, he cut his teeth amid frozen tundras and slippery ice floes, and now he’s one of the most daring members of National Geographic’s team of photographers.
In his latest book, Polar Obsession, Nicklen details his journeys among the wildlife of the poles, which includes stunning shots of walruses, whales, polar bears, narwhals and leopard seals. In recently released video accompanying his amazing photograph above, Nicklen describes an incredible four-day encounter with a 13-foot long leopard seal.
When first spotted, this particular seal was one of the biggest Nicklen had ever seen. Leopard seals are very playful creatures but are commonly perceived as aggressive and ferocious, a view Nicklen wants to change. So he decided to jump into the frigid water to get a closer look, only to have the giant ocean predator swim up to him, drop a penguin from her mouth and grab his head and camera in her jaws. Luckily, she released him and swam off to get him a present: food.
“I think she realised I was a useless predator in her ocean, probably going to starve to death,” says Paul in the video. “I think she became quite panicked and started trying to feed me weak penguins, then dead penguins, then she started showing me how to eat the penguins and pushed them into my camera which I think she thought was my mouth.”
In the end, Nicklen found the encounter to be an eye-opening experience. “I had a top predator take care of me and nurture me,” he said. “It’s the most amazing experience as a National Geographic photographer I’ve ever had.”
To see Nicklen tell his own story, check out this video from National Geographic.