Elephant seal sex - South Georgia and Antarctica

Two juvenile elephant seals play fighting, getting practise for real fights for their hareems in future

Warning: this post contains explicit content some readers may find disturbing. 

But I'm sure you'll read on anyway.

So by the time we got to our final day in South Georgia, we were all pretty much maxed out on smelly penguins covered in shit, and slightly fed up with having growling fur seals chasing after us. We were definitely looking forward to heading down to the Peninsula to see more ice and other wildlife on offer there. Nevertheless, we still wanted to get the most out of our final landing on this beautiful island that had so far filled us with so many surprises and lasting memories.

South Georgia Day 5: Golden Harbour

What we went on to witness was certainly memorable, whether it was a beautiful sight is open to debate.

Golden Harbour was home to the second largest mixed penguin colony that we saw in South Georgia. Amongst the penguins were lots of juvenile fur seals that were too hormonal and wanted a fight every time something or someone went near them. Our walking sticks were definitely needed here. The main characters of this episode however, were the elephant seals.

Specifically two elephant seals, which we came across almost as soon as we landed. 

The larger one was a male juvenile, weighing in roughly 2-2.5 tonnes. The female was much smaller. Experience told us that females are generally smaller than the males, but this one was quite a lot smaller, at least half his size, presumably because she was also a lot younger.

Then, without any warning, before we (and she) realised what was happening, he climbed on top of her. Almost immediately she tried to escape and wriggle herself free. But he was too strong and too big. He pinned her down with his right flipper. She struggled a little, but there was nothing she could do.

For the several minutes that ensued, we watched, awestruck. There was nothing we could do either, except for taking photos and filming the whole event.

Once it was over, he fell to the ground with a thump, and she finally got away. Still in shock and fear, or fearing it would happen again, she quickly moved away from the pack and spent the rest of the afternoon isolated.

That was one of the cruellest moments of our expedition.