March of the Seal Scientists

Fair warning: This post does not include tales of our everyday pup pals, but instead revolves around our new feathered friends. Yesterday, we finished our physiology procedure so efficiently and early that we decided to go on a fun little outing, known here as a “boondoggle.” For those of you still following us from last season, Big Razorback was one of our old work sites; but more importantly, it was where penguins were rumored to be wandering around. The new members of our team had been anxious to see penguins, so we all made the ~20-minute snowmobile ride over to Big Razorback and started our lookout. At first, it didn’t look promising; snow, mountains, and ice were all we could see for miles. We had to wait almost three whole minutes before Linnea, standing statuesque on her snowmobile, shouted “There they are!” We all spun around so fast we almost did 360’s on the slippery ice in our bunny boots, but peeling our eyes revealed two black and white silhouettes far off in the distance coming slowly but surely our way. The ice veterans knew the curious birds would wander right up to us, so we made sure everyone was ready with their cameras and warm clothes.

As expected, the two emperor penguins marched right up to the giant red “penguins” they probably thought we were. The Antarctic Conservation Act, a part of the Antarctic Treaty that protects the continent and all the wildlife that inhabits it, prevents any unpermitted people from approaching penguins or altering their behavior in any way. Therefore, as soon as the penguins got within about 100 yards, we all knelt down and stayed still. The penguins live by their own rules, so they of course gave us fantastic photo opportunities and hung out with us for quite a while. They particularly enjoyed checking out our snowmobiles, even napping for a while next to their favorite ones. After about an hour of penguin party time, they decided we weren’t new and exciting anymore and gracefully (only tripping a few times) waddled away into the proverbial sunset. It was an incredible experience for all of us and a nice diversion from our workday!

Written by: Emma Weitzner