Antarctic wildlife

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

I read an article on an expidition to Antarctica and I wondered: what sort of wildlife lives in Antarctica? Can anything live there? The answer suprised me, and I've put together these images and captions, taken off other websites. Hopefully this interests a few of you. Some of these are from Antartica proper, while others are from South Georgia, a southerly island in the Falklands. It is sill considered part of the Antarctic environment.

Penguins are of course the one animal most associate with Antarctica.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

These King Penguins are on South Georgia island. 400,000 pairs live here!


Emperor penguins. From the British Antarctic Society: "This behaviour is an adaptation to enable the birds to conserve heat. The whole colony huddles together during the cold period of winter darkness, but the group constatntly moves so each bird only ever spends a small time at the periphery."


Gentoo Penguin


The distinctive chinstrap penguin.


Adelie Penguin


And of course the Macaroni penguin!

Seals also live in Antarctica.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Fur seal pup


Weddell seal


Southern Elephant seals. "Elephant seals are highly thigmotatic on land and are often found in large groups literally lying on top of each other. They have to come ashore to moult, and it is thought that they may form these groups to reduce heat loss."


Crabeater seal. Apparently they primarily eat krill.


Ross Seal



Leopard seal. Apparently these animals eat mostly krill as well.

There are a few species of birds on Antarctica too.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Wandering albatross


Black-browed albatross


Black-browed albatross. This colony is on the aptly named Bird Island.


Antarctic Skua


Cape Petral.


Kelp gull


Blue-eyed shag


Brown skua


Snowy Sheathbill

Some plants, mosses, and lichens even live on Antarctica proper.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Antarctic pearlwort


Antarctic hair grass


The dark green is Tussock grass, the light is hair grass.


close-up of tussock grass


Red snow algae


This was only identified as a lichen.



Antarctic grass and moss on Antarctica proper.

There is a variety of sea life. According to the British Antarctic Survey site, many animals grow to a large size. Blue whales, killer whale, and others have been spotted off Antarctic shores. Krill are the base of the food chain here. "The Southern Ocean food web is relatively simple, with a single species, krill, being the major item in the diet of many of the predators; fish, squid, penguins, seals and whales."

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A squid found dead off the shore.


The Antarctic plunderfish! It is resting on a sponge. Apparently the sponges down here can be bigger than a adult human.


The bullhead Notothen or yellow rock-cod fish. These are pretty common.


Mackerel Icefish

A few insects live here as well.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The wingless fly.

Tidepools also support a wide variety of life. "Antarctic tidepools (above left) are scraped by ice every winter but a small number of organisms may live here temporarily during the summer thaw. Pink encrusting coralline algae and leafy red algae (above center), along with leafy green algae (above right) are a few of the summer tidepool plants."

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[img]http://www.biosbcc.net/ocean/AAimg/tdpl2.jpg[img]

I have to prepare for class now, so I can't get into the animals of the following quote:
"During summer months a limited tidepool population of algae (leafy reds and greens as well as encrusting corallines), snails, limpets, and swimming crustaceans may be found on some of the ice-free tidepools along the shorelines of Antarctica. This area freezes each winter. However, if one goes below 30 feet deep there is a permanent subtidal community of sponges, starfish, and crustaceans that never encounters solid ice, and is very stable."

Main sources:
http://www.biosbcc.net/ocean/AAlife.htm
http://www.uow.edu.au/science/biol/i...0s/poster.html
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/

I hope this piques the interest of some of you to look up more.

[Dayman]

Antarctica is awesome. I want to visit someday. Imagine all the stuff lying under that ice - an entire continent which has never, and may never truly have its real surface explored.

P.S. 4000th post.

Good thing it was in this topic and not a thread on something dumb like Jesus or evil bankers.

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

Found some more images of things, stuff preparing for class.


Antarctic octopus

TONS of awesome pics, CLICK!!


"Deep, deep, deep into the dark icy waters around Antarctica is a lively and peculiar bundle of marine life. Carnivorous sponges, crustaceans and wiggling worms all bring life into these shivering depths. Researchers have recently discovered nearly 700 new sea creatures. It’s a surprising find because around these desolate and freezing parts, the conditions are really aggressive. Scientists hadn’t anticipated that all of these strange and interesting life forms would exist."
http://weirdscience.ca/2007/06/27/deep-sea-creatures/

[Simetrical]

What, you haven't seen March of the Penguins?

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

Nope

[Simetrical]

I saw the beginning. It at least told me there were penguins that lived there, and fish they ate, and seals that ate them.

[roy34543]

Antartica is nice but i feel the fact that people say its melting is to attract tourists.
it will stand for quite a bit while longer.

[Dayman]

Antartica is nice but i feel the fact that people say its melting is to attract tourists.
it will stand for quite a bit while longer.

Isn't the Ross Ice shelf destabilizing?

[Richard]

Seals and penguins are the only notable land-dwelling animals...in fact I can't think of a single fully terrestrial animal from Antarctica other than spiders and insects etc

[roy34543]

Isn't the Ross Ice shelf destabilizing?

I believe theres another part slightly growing, and thats hardly all of antartica anyway .

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

Don't turn this into a global warming thread!!

Look at the pretty animals!!

[Dayman]

Don't turn this into a global warming thread!!

Look at the pretty animals!!

AMINALS!