Antarctic Wildlife

Penguins

Emperor Penguins

The world's largest penguin breeds only in Antarctica's brutal winter. A rare and unforgettable sight.

Penguins

Gentoo Penguin

A stocky, orange-billed penguin of the genus Pygoscelis, closest kin to the Adélie and Chinstrap. Its loud, trumpeting call, delivered with head thrown back, carries across the shoreline colonies where expedition landings are made.

Whales & Dolphins

Humpback Whale

A 14–17 metre baleen whale known for breaching and long pectoral fins, often seen feeding on krill in loose groups along the ice edge.

Whales & Dolphins

Orca

Black and white apex predator instantly recognizable by its pale eye patches, the orca is the largest of the dolphins and one of the ocean's most capable hunters. Sightings often involve a tight-knit family pod working the ice edge together.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Wandering Albatross

The snowy albatross, better known as the wandering albatross, has the widest wingspan of any living bird alive today. Watch for it riding the wind for hours behind the ship without a single wingbeat.

Seals & Sea Lions

Leopard Seal

The leopard seal is the Antarctic's second-largest seal after the elephant seal, built long and muscular with a spotted, leopard-like coat. It is the region's top predator, hunting penguins, fish, and even other seals along the ice edge.

Penguins

King Penguin

The king penguin is the second-largest penguin species, closely resembling but smaller than the emperor penguin. Look for its dense, noisy colonies on South Georgia's beaches, one of the more reliable large penguins to watch up close on these voyages.

Penguins

Chinstrap Penguin

Named for the thin black band under its chin, the chinstrap penguin looks as if it is wearing a helmet. Listen for it before you see it: it has one of the loudest, harshest calls of any penguin.

Penguins

Adélie Penguin

One of the most widespread penguins in Antarctica, the Adélie is often the first tuxedoed local guests meet ashore. Its stark white eye-ring and brisk, purposeful waddle make it easy to pick out along the ice edge.

Penguins

Macaroni Penguin

Look for the shaggy yellow eyebrows: this stocky, crested penguin breeds in dense, noisy colonies across the Southern Ocean. It's the most numerous penguin species on Earth, though its numbers have been falling since the 1970s.

Penguins

Southern Rockhopper Penguin

A small, spiky-crested penguin found around the southern tip of South America and its outlying islands. Its tangled taxonomic history makes it a quietly interesting stop on any Southern Ocean itinerary.

Seals & Sea Lions

Southern Elephant Seal

The southern elephant seal is the largest of all pinnipeds, with bulls roughly twice the bulk of a walrus. Watching a beachful of them roar and shove over territory is one of the most physical wildlife spectacles the Southern Ocean offers.

Seals & Sea Lions

Antarctic Fur Seal

A small, quick-moving seal named almost by accident after the German ship that first collected it near Kerguelen, not for the continent it's rarely seen on. Despite the name, most encounters happen on subantarctic beaches, not the Antarctic mainland.

Seals & Sea Lions

New Zealand Sea Lion

One of the world's rarest sea lions, found almost nowhere else on Earth. The Auckland and Campbell Islands hold most of its breeding population.

Whales & Dolphins

Southern Right Whale

A stocky baleen whale with no dorsal fin and a head crusted in pale callosities, once hunted almost to extinction and now the whale most likely to breach or wave a fluke at passing ships. It favours the same cold, food-rich waters that expedition itineraries already follow.

Whales & Dolphins

Antarctic Minke Whale

The Antarctic minke is a small, fast-moving rorqual, the most abundant baleen whale on Earth, though singles and pairs still take some looking to spot. It surfaces briefly among the pack ice, more often glimpsed than watched.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Black-Browed Albatross

A large seabird of the albatross family, the black-browed albatross is the most widespread and common of all albatrosses. Its dark eye-stripe makes it one of the easiest albatrosses to pick out from a rolling deck.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Light-Mantled Albatross

A small, sooty-grey albatross of the genus Phoebetria, first described from a specimen collected south of the Cape of Good Hope in 1785. Watch for its slow, buoyant glide along cliff faces and in the wake of ships crossing the Southern Ocean.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Southern Giant Petrel

A large seabird of the southern oceans, also called the Antarctic giant petrel, giant fulmar or simply the stinker. Its range overlaps broadly with the near-identical northern giant petrel, the two told apart chiefly by the colour of the bill-tip.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Snow Petrel

The snow petrel is one of only three bird species ever recorded at the Geographic South Pole, and it holds the record for the most southerly breeding sites of any bird. Pure white against dark rock and ice, it is unmistakable and easy to pick out from a moving ship.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

South Polar Skua

A large, heavy-built seabird of the skua family, the south polar skua ranges the Southern Ocean and its ice edges with an unmistakable, gull-like silhouette. Its older name, MacCormick's skua, recalls the naval surgeon who collected the first specimen.

Whales & Dolphins

Commerson's Dolphin

A small, sharply marked black-and-white dolphin found only around the tip of South America, often seen riding the bow wave in narrow channels. Its jacobita or panda-dolphin nickname comes from the bold two-tone pattern that make it hard to mistake for anything else.

Whales & Dolphins

Fin Whale

The fin whale is the second-longest animal on Earth after the blue whale, reaching up to 27 metres. Its long, slender, countershaded body is most often seen slicing through open water rather than breaching.

Whales & Dolphins

Sei Whale

The sei whale is the third-largest rorqual after the blue and fin whale, and one of the fastest cetaceans afloat, capable of short bursts near 50 km/h. It favours deep offshore water, so a sighting on the crossing south is a genuine bonus rather than a certainty.

Whales & Dolphins

Blue Whale

The blue whale is the largest animal known to have existed, reaching up to 30 metres in length and 200 tonnes in weight. Sightings are rare but unmistakable, usually a distant blow and a long grey-blue back rolling at the surface.

Whales & Dolphins

Sperm Whale

The sperm whale is the largest toothed predator on Earth, hunting giant squid at depths few other mammals reach. Its blunt, box-shaped head holds the largest brain of any animal.

Whales & Dolphins

Peale's Dolphin

A small, sturdy dolphin found only in the waters off southern South America, sometimes still called the black-chinned dolphin for the dark patch under its jaw. Watch for it riding bow waves as your ship threads the channels toward Antarctica.

Whales & Dolphins

Hourglass Dolphin

A small, fast-moving dolphin of the open Southern Ocean, most often glimpsed as a flash of black and white alongside the ship's bow. It has a circumpolar range but is best known to travellers for its habit of appearing mid-crossing, far from any coast.

Seals & Sea Lions

South American Sea Lion

Bulky, maned bulls and sleek females haul out together on beaches from the Falklands to the Beagle Channel. Watching a dominant male defend his patch of shoreline is one of the more entertaining wildlife spectacles of the region.

Seals & Sea Lions

New Zealand Fur Seal

Known as kekeno in Māori, the New Zealand fur seal was hunted to near-extinction after European arrival, making today's colonies a hard-won sight. Expect to find them hauled out on rocky shorelines across the subantarctic islands.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Snowy Sheathbill

The snowy sheathbill is the only land bird native to the Antarctic continent, and one of just two sheathbill species in the world. Look down, not up: it spends its time walking the shoreline and rocks rather than flying.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Antarctic Shag

The Antarctic shag is the only cormorant species found on the continent, easy to pick out by its blue-ringed eyes as it stands stiffly upright on ice floes and coastal cliffs. It nests in small colonies apart from the penguin rookeries along rocky shorelines.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Imperial Shag

A black-and-white cormorant with a startling ring of blue skin around each eye, nesting in dense colonies on bare coastal rock. Look for it wherever cliffs meet water, often perched stiff-winged like a heraldic emblem.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Antarctic Prion

The Antarctic prion is the largest of the prions, a group of small Southern Ocean petrels sometimes called dove prions. Watch for loose flocks wheeling low over the swell as your ship crosses open water between landings.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Cape Petrel

The pintado petrel, better known as the Cape petrel, is one of the most abundant seabirds of the Southern Ocean, with a population estimated at around two million. Travellers usually meet it long before they see land, tracking ships across open water.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Wilson's Storm Petrel

A small, sooty-black seabird that flits and patters over the wake like it's walking on water. Named for ornithologist Alexander Wilson, it's reckoned among the most numerous bird species on Earth.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Southern Fulmar

Pale grey above, white below, and marked with a distinctive white wing patch, the southern fulmar is a familiar shape trailing expedition ships south of the Antarctic Convergence. It breeds on Antarctic cliffs and islands, then disperses north with the winter ice.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Grey-Headed Albatross

A large mollymawk with an ashy-grey head, throat and neck, ranging further south into the Southern Ocean than any other albatross of its kind. Look for it wheeling low over the wake in open water far from any coastline.

Albatrosses & Seabirds

Southern Royal Albatross

One of the two largest albatrosses alive, with a wingspan topping three metres. Watch for it gliding low over the swell around New Zealand's subantarctic islands.