This video was filmed on November 15, 2012, as part of the National Geographic Live! Lecture series at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., United States.

Introduction

National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen uses his camera to reveal the graceful and feared leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), a species threatened by climate change. "I call myself an interpreter and a translator," Nicklen says. "I translate what the scientists are telling me. If we lose ice, we stand to lose an entire ecosystem. I hope we can realize through my photography how interconnected these species are to ice. It just takes one image to get someone's attention."

Whether he is ice diving among leopard seals in Antarctica, covering hundreds of miles of terrain in minus 40°C (minus 40°F) temperatures, or mastering aerial shots from his ultralight plane, Paul Nicklen has specialized in photographing polar regions since 1995.

Outline

• A species with a bad reputation: why leopard seals are perceived as vicious (start-1:40 min.)
• Getting in the water with a 12-foot seal (1:41-3:38 min.)
• An amazing experience: a leopard seal tries to feed Nicklen a penguin (3:39-6:57 min.)

Strategies for Using Video in a Variety of Learning Environments

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Transcript (English)

- [Paul] Since the time of Shackleton, these seals have had a bad reputation. Shackleton, in fact, So the stories go, he used to use a man as bait, he'd put 'em on the ice and the leopard seal would lunge outta the water at him, and shoot it. And another guy would shoot it, and then they would keep it for dog food. And I was like, "No, these seals aren't that vicious," and you hear all these stories, and tragically, a scientist was killed by a leopard seal in 2004, a very, very sad situation, but I still wanted to give this animal a fair shake. I wanted to go down to Antarctica and get in the water with as many leopard seals as I could just to try and understand them. And so, I worked with my friend Goran Ehlme from Sweden, who has a lot of experience with leopard seals, and together, we were gonna go on this little journey to try and solve the mystery of these seals to see if they were misunderstood or if they really were vicious beasts. And they also eat happy feet. You know, we're a very emotional species. You know, we think penguins are cute, and we think leopard seals are ugly, therefore, leopard seals are bad, penguins are good. It doesn't work like that. The seal doesn't know he's cute or ugly. I mean, the penguin doesn't know he's cute. I mean, this is just how the ecosystem unfolds. This is just all part of the food chain. And leopard seals are also big. I mean, you're thinking ring seals, right? You're thinking a hundred pounds seal. These guys are over a thousand pounds, and this was a massive female leopard seal that Goran's in the water with. So we arrived in Antarctica, and I was so stressed out. Were we gonna find leopard seals to photograph, and Goran's like, "Relax, relax." And so, our first day there, we come around the corner, we anchor the sailboat, get on our dinghy, we go around the corner, and there's this massive female leopard seal, and she's ripping the head off this penguin, shaking up from side to side. These are the feet here, trailing behind. She whips it back and forth to turn it inside out so she can eat the meat, and it was pretty horrific. There were chunks of meat in the water. She came up underneath the boat, she rammed the penguin underneath the hull of the boat. almost knocked us in the water. We had to sit down. She was longer than our 12 foot long Zodiac boat. And that's when Goran, my guide, said, "It's time for you to get in the water, ya." He's this big, strong, burly Swede, and very strong guy, and, you know, he's authoritative individual. And I was like, "You know, forget that." Except I probably used a different word starting with the letter F. And he's like, "Look at you complain about your budget. You complain about not enough time, blah, blah, blah. Now you shut up and get in the water. I present you a bloody, big, beautiful leopard seal. Now get in the water." And so, I looked at him, I look at the leopard seal, I'm trembling, I got dry mouth, and I part my lips with my snorkel and roll over the side of the Zodiac into the water with this seal, terrified. I mean, this is a big, big animal. And this is the first thing she does. She comes shooting right over to me, and she engulfs my camera inside her entire mouth. And, you know, again, the photographer instinct kicks in. Well, I mean, here we are, we might as well shoot. But Goran gave me great advice. He said, "If you get scared, you close your eyes, and she'll go away, ya." He really did say that. And the other advice he gave me was, "Stay with the penguin, ya." He kept yelling that. I could hear him. You know, I'm breathing in my snorkel, my adrenaline's going, he's yelling, "Stay with the penguin," 'cause this leopard seal was killing penguins, and he said, if I stay with them, I'll get my shots. Well, the most amazing thing happened. She did this threat display for a few minutes, and then she completely relaxed. And I didn't know what was gonna happen next. And she left. I thought, well, the show's over. And she came back, and she had a penguin by the feet, and she held it, and it was flapping, and she let it go. Penguin swam towards me and took off. She went after it and caught it, came back, and did it again. She did this about 10 times. And it dawned on me, she's trying to feed me a penguin. And I was like, "No, it can't be." But I thought, well, I'll just keep shooting. I mean, this picture here was, you know, not a fluke. I mean, I had so many chances to get this shot, 'cause she kept trying to feed me this penguin. And I swear, as she swam by me to get the penguin that just swam away, she had this dejected look on her face, and she'd look over at me as she'd swim by, grab the penguin, and do it again. And the biologist in me doesn't wanna anthropomorphize these situations, but that's what it really appeared to be at the time. And then that didn't work. I couldn't catch a swimming penguin, so she grabbed the penguin and she made it really tired, wore it down, got it nice and exhausted, and then she kind of bobbed towards me in this vertical position, and she gently let the penguin go and it swam away, and she went and did this a few times. That didn't work. So she did this other thing where she got a penguin and she got it extremely tired now, and she ate every penguin she did this to. You felt bad for the penguins, but this is what she does. They play with her food, anyways. So here, she's on her back. She's sliding down an iceberg in these really sort of sexy ballet-like poses where she's sort of twirling around with the penguin, and then she'd come around like this, and then she'd present it to me like that. Like that, and I would sit there, looking at this penguin, like, "I don't know what to do with this penguin." And that didn't work, so she was getting frustrated. So she got me dead penguins. She would drown them, and she would just swim right up to me and just give me dead penguins. And then she'd just stop sometimes with a dead penguin floating there in front of me and just stare at me like, "Are you for real?" This is all happening in two days. Can you imagine, from this sheer terror of this animal and Goran in the boat go, "And I told you so, ya?" And then this seal staring at me. I mean, this is all unfolding very quickly. And that didn't work. I didn't touch the dead penguin. So she grabbed penguins and she'd flip 'em on top of my head. So now I have penguins on top of my head, and I'm sitting there just photographing, and you've got the feet hanging in front. And I'm just not moving. I'm just shooting. Now, this is every photographer's dream, to have a top predator like this trying to force feed you. I mean, you know, I thought we were gonna fail this story. We ended up shooting this entire story in two days 'cause of this. And then she started to show frustration, and I started to get worried. She'd come up to me and she'd blow bubbles, which is a threat display in the wild world, but she'd just blow bubbles and go back to trying to feed me, so I don't know what she was really trying to say. And then, this one time, she did this deep, guttural jackhammer sound. She rolled upside down on her back, and she did this really deep, and I could feel it vibrate through my whole body, and I was like, "Uh-oh, I'm about to get hit." You know, she's upset now. And what had happened was another leopard seal had snuck in behind me, and she did a threat display. She chased it away. It was another big female. She chased it away, and she grabbed its penguin, and brought its penguin back and gave it to me.

Transcripción (Español)

- Cara a cara con una foca leopardo

- [Paul] Desde la época de Shackleton, estas focas han tenido una mala reputación. De hecho, Shackleton, según se cuenta, solía usar a un hombre como cebo, lo ponía en el hielo y la foca leopardo se lanzaba desde el agua hacia él, y la disparaba. Otro hombre la disparaba y la guardaban para comida de perros. Pensé: "No, estas focas no son tan feroces". Escuchan todas estas historias y, trágicamente, un científico fue asesinado por una foca leopardo en 2004, una situación muy triste, pero aun así quería darle a este animal una oportunidad. Quería ir a la Antártida y meterme en el agua con tantas focas leopardo como pudiera para intentar entenderlas. Trabajé con mi amigo Goran Ehlme, de Suecia, quien tiene mucha experiencia con las focas leopardo, e íbamos a emprender este viaje juntos para intentar resolver el misterio de estas focas para ver si eran malentendidas o si realmente eran bestias feroces. También comen pingüinos. Somos una especie muy emocional. Pensamos que los pingüinos son lindos, y que las focas leopardo son feas, por lo tanto, las focas leopardo son malas, los pingüinos son buenos. No funciona así. La foca no sabe si es linda o fea. El pingüino no sabe que es lindo. Así es como se desarrolla el ecosistema. Es solo parte de la cadena alimenticia. Las focas leopardo también son grandes. Imaginan focas enormes ¿verdad? Imaginan focas de 45 kilos. Estas pesan más de 454 kilos, y esta era una enorme hembra de foca leopardo con la que Goran está en el agua. Llegamos a la Antártida y estaba muy estresado. ¿Íbamos a encontrar focas leopardo para fotografiar? Goran dice: "Relájate". Nuestro primer día allí, pasamos la esquina, anclamos el velero, subimos a nuestro bote, pasamos la esquina, y vemos una enorme hembra de foca leopardo que le estaba arrancando la cabeza a un pingüino, lo sacudía de un lado a otro. Estos son los pies. Ella lo sacude de un lado a otro para comer la carne, y fue bastante horroroso. Había trozos de carne en el agua. Ella pasó por debajo del bote, embistió al pingüino debajo del casco del bote. casi nos tira al agua, tuvimos que sentarnos. Era más grande que el bote Zodiac de 3,6 metros de largo. Entonces, Goran, mi guía, dijo: "Es hora de que te metas al agua". Es un sueco grande, fuerte y robusto, y es una persona autoritaria. Pensé: "Claro que no". Excepto que probablemente usé una palabra diferente que comienza con la letra F. Dijo: "Como te quejas del presupuesto, te quejas de no tener suficiente tiempo, blah, blah, blah. Ahora cállate y entra al agua. Te presento una foca leopardo grande, sangrienta y hermosa. Ahora entra al agua". Lo miro a él, miro a la foca leopardo, estoy temblando, tengo la boca seca, y separo mis labios con mi esnórquel y me vuelco al costado del Zodiac, entro al agua con esta foca, aterrado. Este es un animal muy grande. Esto es lo primero que hace. Viene directamente hacia mí, y engulle mi cámara en su boca. El instinto del fotógrafo se activa: "Ya que estoy aquí, podría al menos sacarle una foto". Pero Goran me dio un gran consejo: "Si te asustas, cierra los ojos, y ella se irá". Realmente dijo eso. El otro consejo que me dio fue: "Quédate con el pingüino". No dejaba de gritar eso. Podía oírlo. Estoy respirando por el esnórquel, la adrenalina está fluyendo, escucho:"Quédate con el pingüino", porque esta foca leopardo estaba matando pingüinos, y pensé que, si me quedaba con ellos, conseguiría fotos. Ocurrió algo increíble. Me amenazó durante unos minutos y luego se relajó por completo. No sabía qué iba a pasar después. Se fue, pensé: "El espectáculo terminó". Volvió, tenía un pingüino por los pies, lo sostenía, y estaba agitándose, y lo soltó. El pingüino nadó hacia mí y se fue. Ella fue tras él y lo atrapó, volvió, y lo hizo de nuevo. Hizo esto unas 10 veces. Y me di cuenta: intentaba darme el pingüino como comida. Pensé: "No, no puede ser. Seguiré grabando". Esta foto no fue una casualidad. Tuve tantas oportunidades de sacar esta foto, porque ella seguía intentando darme este pingüino. Juro que, cuando pasaba junto a mí para atrapar al pingüino que acababa escapar, tenía esta mirada de decepción en su rostro, y me miraba mientras nadaba, agarraba al pingüino, y lo hacía de nuevo. El biólogo en mí no quiere antropomorfizar estas situaciones, pero eso es lo que realmente parecía ser en ese momento. Luego, eso no funcionó. No pude fotografiar al pingüino nadando, así que ella lo agarró y lo cansó mucho, lo agotó, lo dejó bien exhausto, y luego ella se acercó a mí en esta posición vertical, y suavemente soltó al pingüino y este se alejó nadando, y ella hizo esto varias veces. Eso no funcionó. Así que, hizo esta otra cosa: agarró al pingüino y lo cansó por completo. Se comió a cada pingüino al que hizo esto. Me sentía mal por los pingüinos, pero ella hace esto. Juega con su comida. Aquí la ven boca arriba. Está deslizándose por un iceberg en estas poses de ballet sexy. Gira alrededor con el pingüino, luego da la vuelta así, y me lo acercaba así. Me quedaba mirando al pingüino: "No sé qué hacer con este pingüino". Y eso no funcionó, así que, ella estaba frustrada. Me llevó pingüinos muertos. Los ahogaba, nadaba directamente hacia mí y simplemente me daba pingüinos muertos. Luego, se detenía con un pingüino muerto que flotaba ahí frente a mí y me miraba como diciendo: "¿En serio?" Todo esto sucedió en dos días. Desde estar aterrado por este animal y Goran en el bote decía: "Te lo dije". Luego, esta foca que me miraba. Todo esto sucedió muy rápidamente. Eso no funcionó, no toqué el pingüino muerto. Así que, ella agarraba pingüinos y me los lanzaba por encima de la cabeza. Tenía pingüinos encima de la cabeza. Estaba fotografiando con los pies colgando en frente. Y no me movía, solo sacaba fotos. Este es el sueño de todo fotógrafo: tener a un depredador superior como este que intenta alimentarme. Pensé que íbamos a fracasar en esta tarea. Terminamos fotografiando todo en dos días. Luego, ella comenzó a mostrar frustración, y yo comencé a preocuparme. Se acercaba a mí y soplaba burbujas, lo cual es una señal de amenaza en el mundo salvaje, pero solo soplaba burbujas y volvía a intentar alimentarme. Así que, no sé qué intentaba decir. En este momento, hizo un sonido profundo, como de taladro neumático. Se volteó boca arriba, e hizo un ruido. Muy profundo, y pude sentirlo vibrar en todo mi cuerpo, y pensé: "Oh, estoy a punto de ser golpeado". Ella está molesta ahora. Lo que había sucedido fue que otra foca leopardo se había colado detrás de mí, y ella hizo una exhibición de amenaza. La ahuyentó, era otra hembra grande. La ahuyentó, agarró su pingüino y me trajo el pingüino de vuelta.