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day eighty-two - wattled smoky honeyeater

here. quick. look! © jem barratt wow i really like this one! pity i can't tell you much because i'm running late. so quickl...

July 19, 2011

day seventy-eight - elephant seal

aww isn't this sweet and not at all sinister?

© jem barratt

hmmm. let's look at some more evidence. yep they're creepy alright.

the male ones anyway. i have actually been to the argentinian peninsula that hosts the fourth largest colony of elephant seals. cool hey? yeah, probably should mention there weren't any there at the time. well no bulls anyhow.

what i did see was some filthy sea lion bulls crushing the ladies and their babies and making lascivious noises. i mention this because like sea lions, elephant seal bulls have harems of several dozen sea-ladies (if they're highly ranked. they might have none if they're at the bottom of the hierarchy).

very interesting behaviour to observe, although hearing hundreds of sealions do it is more than a little revolting - and i imagine if you add an inflated proboscis to the mix like these elephant seals do it would be all the more off-putting.

xj

p.s. google 'elephant seal noise' to hear their fart-squelch-pig-squealy-calls

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