10. Other Wildlife

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The wildlife on the land around the Antarctic Peninsular is dominated by penguins and, to a lesser extent, resting seals. However, one is certainly aware of skuas because they can be seen in all of the penguin rookeries where they attack and devour disabled and abandoned chicks. Cormorants are also quite common and we did see a rookery near the Almirante Brown Station in Paradise Bay. These birds are remarkable in that they can dive tens of metres below the surface of the sea to catch fish for food. But what really brought it home to us that the centre of life in Antarctica is the ocean was the discovery of a stranded giant jelly fish on a beach on Snow Hill Island. No doubt another predator on the billions of tons of krill that form the base of the food chain in Antarctic waters.

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