More Enderby Island Sea Lions

Beachmasters battling in a spray of sand
Beachmasters battling in a spray of sand

Last week’s post did not have space to do justice to the  photos I took of the Enderby Island Sea Lion colony so I thought I would share a few more this week. It was quite a powerful scene to witness with the raw aggression of the males, their dominance of the females and indifference to the pups. It was hard not to anthropomorphise things and feel sympathy for the females and pups.

Beachmaster surveys his harem, keeping a wary eye on surrounding males
Beachmaster surveys his harem, keeping a wary eye on surrounding males
A lone female runs the gauntlet of males at the sea edge after returning from a foraging trip
A lone female runs the gauntlet of males at the sea edge after returning from a foraging trip
Females find a modicum of safety in numbers.
Females find a modicum of safety in numbers.
Skuas squabbling over the stillborn pup
Skuas squabbling over the stillborn pup
Sea Lions ands Skuas unperturbed by their human visitors
Sea Lions ands Skuas rest unperturbed by their human visitors
Edin getting a good low angle on a maturing male who felt more at home with the humans watching proceedings from above the beach. The observant will notice another example of focus stacking.
Edin getting a good low angle on a maturing male who felt more at home with the humans watching proceedings from above the beach. This is another example of focus stacking, keeping both Edin and Sea Lion in sharp focus with the telephoto lens.

See Edins blog post for the image she took of this Sea Lion.

Next week we will continue down the eastern side of Auckland Island and visit the Eastern Rockhopper Penguins of Musgrave Inlet.

Photos with Nikon D810 and Nikon 200-400mm f4 AFS VR lens except wide view of Sandy Bay with Fuji X100s.

 

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