Antarctica videos

Just in case you haven´t had your fill of pics and vids from Antarctica, here are a few more. I took advantage of a good connection to upload the vids.

Besides penguins, penguins everywhere (nor any bird to eat? ... to liberally paraphrase Coleridge), Antarctica is home to lots of other wonderful wildlife. Some of the more fascinating to view up close are the different varieties of seals. Most of the time they are friendly enough, but just make sure not to get too close. I got this great video of a 3 way fight between some seals. I think you can watch this without sound, as it was a very windy location, so most of the sound is just wind.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6439206490777679298

But besides the seals, people really come to Antarctica to see the penguins. And boy do those penguins do some silly things. They are not the most graceful animals on land, but if you see them in the water, it´s a beautiful thing. Unfortunately, it´s much easier to get land-based video than underwater video, so here you go.

First, here´s a general scene of lots of penguins hanging out on a hillside, playing games with each other, waddling about, and chasing each other around.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7794910531782826718

Penguins love chasing each other around. For some reason, it´s mostly only 3 penguins involved in any one chase, although you see some 2 and 4 penguin chases as well. First up is a 3 penguin chase:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-541508609341653616

Next up is one of my favorites, a 4 penguin chase. It´s important to notice the penguin in the top left of the screen at the beginning, as he´s the 4th penguin that comes barging into the chase and causes so much trouble. Unfortunately, my batteries died in the middle of this video, so it´s shorter than I would like (the cold weather kills battery life - very important to have a spare set and rechargeable batteries).

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6827866151366047583

Penguins also can be very quiet or they can make a lot of noise. This bunch falls into the latter group. These 3 videos are mostly the same, so you can just watch the first one in the list, but the others are there if you just can´t get enough. These penguins are molting, so you´ll notice a lot of feathers on the ground around them. For these 3 vids, you definitely need the sound on to appreciate them.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7229354953676082505

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8250046481450621165

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7316421057725625327

And last but not least, I think we´ve mentioned the rough crossing across the Drake Passage between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula. I think this video gives a good taste of what a crossing is like. This is taken at lunch one day. You´ll see how the boat rocks back and forth as the well-trained wait staff take it in their stride. Fortunately for us the chairs are tied down to the floor. I think you need the sound for this one to enjoy it more, as you hear the plates and glasses rattle around. Now, imagine riding a boat like this for 48 straight hours - twice (down and back)! Enjoy.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7968285342075832553