Southern Sea lion mauling gentoo penguin

[Charles Glatzer]

Penguins have an incredibly difficult life, and it starts before birth. The predation of eggs and young chicks by raptors, southern petrels, and more is astounding in numbers. I personally watched over 20 eggs and newly hatched chicks (some still having the shell attached) get taken within a few hours at one rookery. I spent two days concentrating on documenting only predation, and I produced a number of amazing images. However, it was the witnessing the ferocity and ease of a southern sea lion attacking, playing with and dismembering a number of adult gentoo penguins in the surf that definitely put things in perspective.

Southern Sea lion mauling gentoo penguin
1DX, 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4X @ 560mm, 1/6000 @ f/8, ISO 800. Postproduction LR5, CS6, Intensify Pro

[peter delaney]

Excellent behavioral image , Charles. It must have been an amazing experience to watch Mother Nature at work.
One day ... Would love to Join you ...
Happy New year ... Keep safe out there...

[Grace Scalzo]

A wonderful piece of work, Chas. Not easy to view, but an important story to be told and you have done it so well.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I too would love to see and document this. You did a great job here Chas. I often rue the fact that I might not have captured the predator's eyes in predation images but it's not about that in these sequences, and seeing images by others that "lack the eye" and work well for me make me perhaps less harsh on myself in these fleeting moments of natural history we can observe and document. :5

[Gabriela Plesea]

Great action captured, congratulations Charles! Very dramatic image and I really appreciate the info provided.

Kind regards,

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Charles, great behavior shot, nicely processed with very good colors and detail/sharpness.
Still i would prefer to see , at least , a glimpse of the eye.

TFS Andreas