South Orkney Islands - An Unfortunate End for a Chinstrap Penguin

Tuesday, 25 February 2020

While on an afternoon Zodiac cruise at the far western reaches of Coronation Island, we watched as an unwitting chinstrap penguin entered the food chain - an up-close witnessing of "Nature, red in tooth and claw" (Tennyson, In Memoriam).

Chinstrap penguins entering the water. There's (relative) safety in numbers!

But beware! There are leopard seals lurking in these waters.

As we watched the leopard seal one caught a chinstrap penguin not far from shore. The seal played with its prey, much like a cat with a mouse. You can see that a seabird has already shown interest in the slaughter.

Leopard seal with penguin carcass.

The dead penguin looks abandoned, but not for long. A storm-petrel monitors the situation.

The leopard seal seizes the penguin and violently flays it around to separate the meat from the skin and bones, making for a tastier meal.

After the leopard seal has had its fill, a variety of seabirds convene to finish off the remains. No food gets wasted.