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11 Nov 2009Fierce leopard seal displays its two-inch teeth as it hunts down a penguin

Watchman

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Fierce leopard seal displays its two-inch teeth as it hunts down a penguin

Last updated at 7:41 AM on 11th November 2009

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As any professional photographer will tell you, it can often be hard to get your subject to crack a smile.

However, there was no such problem for Amos Nachoum when he encountered this 12ft leopard seal.

As he bravely edged his camera close to the fearsome predator's face, it obligingly opened its jaws and showed off a fine set of 2in razor-sharp teeth.
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Roar: The leopard seal's two-inch teeth look like they are about to take the lens off the camera in this image taken by Amos Nachoun and his team in Antarctica
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The seal takes another run at the camera - whose operator must have nerves of steel

An experienced photographer of underwater wildlife, Nachoum spotted the seal as it hunted penguin near Pleneau-Island in Antarctica's Southern Ocean.

'The leopard seal is a sleek and violent hunter,' said Nachoum. 'He will ambush his prey by waiting in silence at the bottom of the shallow channels that run along the island.


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'He will then launch himself at the unsuspecting penguin and grab hold of its feet.

'In one of the most visceral acts that I have seen in wildlife photography the leopard seal will then take the penguin to the surface and shake its body to a pulp before eating it.

'They do not like to eat the penguin's feathers.'

He added: 'They are the only seal capable of attacking a human and as such need to be treated with due respect.'

Captured in its full glory in February of this year, the agile leopard seal is part of a group that congregate each year on the Antarctic Peninsula to feed.
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Gotcha: The leopard seal clamps a penguin in its fearsome jaws as it glares into the camera

Photographing one of Mother Nature's most brutal scenes is not an easy task.

'We travelled for four days from Ushuaia on the southern coast of Argentina in a sail boat at the height of the Antarctic summer to get to Pleneau Island,' Amos said.

'The air temperature can peak at around 10 degrees and the water temperature can fall as low as minus one.

'As such we must use dry-suits with thermal insulating layers to ensure that we can enter the water.

'Using these we can stay for up to one hour in the sea with the seals.'

Because of the dangers of diving in the icy Antarctic, experienced Amos has a serious respect for this type of photographic expedition.

'Antarctica is a final frontier,' he added.

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The seal snaps the penguin in its jaws before taking it to the surface and shaking its body to a pulp

'Only very experienced divers who have excellent buoyancy could be prepared for this type of dive.

'They must understand that they face not only the danger from the seal, but from the water and climate too.'

For Amos, diving with any leopard seal is always daunting.

'In the water, most associate sharks with danger,' he said. 'But when divers with me see the intelligence, agility and size of the leopard seal they can become nervous.

'I explain that they must not encroach on the seal's space and not to provoke it into any unwanted action.'

Even though Amos has dived with Great Whites and photographed polar bears from three feet away, he is always in awe of the leopard seal.

'I have seen them throw themselves on to rocks during a hunt into the middle of a group of sitting penguins. They ignore all the others around them and chase the one penguin that they are targeting.

'They are single minded, decisive and want the particular prey that they have chosen.'
 
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