Antarctica Holidays

For half of the year, much of Antarctica lies in darkness, a frozen world locked in the grip of some of the lowest ever recorded temperatures. Not only is Antarctica the coldest continent, it is also the windiest and surprisingly, the driest. The vast snow and ice that make up the polar ice cap have accumulated over millions of years and the mean precipitation is so low it would bring desert conditions elsewhere. These factors combine to inhibit the formation of the types of soil needed to sustain plant and animal life on land. Only in a few places do algae, lichens and mosses grow and only two species of flowering plant are found on the continent. The invertebrate fauna is equally poor and there are no land mammals in the region.

While the species diversity on land is minimal, the oceans that surround the Antarctic continent and its islands are incredibly productive as first sealers and later whalers discovered. Fortunately, the slaughter was halted in time and fur seals have made a dramatic come-back, though populations of other species, among them blue whales and southern right whales are still struggling to recover.

The great attractions of Antarctic wildlife are the huge numbers of individual species that can be observed and the fact that much of it is incredibly tame and approachable. This makes for not only very rewarding encounters, but also fantastic opportunities for photography.

On a typical voyage to Antarctica you can expect to visit enormous rookeries of gentoo, chinstrap and Adelie penguins, while king and macaroni penguins feature on specific itineraries. The largest of all, the emperor penguin, is the only species to nest on the ice and while juvenile birds are sometimes encountered late in the season as the ice breaks up, they are the least easy to see.

Whilst individual albatrosses of several species are often observed in flight, it is something else to see huge numbers of these magnificent birds at their island breeding sites. Petrels and storm petrels also come ashore to breed, often in huge colonies. Antarctic terns, kelp gulls, skuas, sheathbills and blue-eyed shags are other species that visitors can expect to encounter, both on land at their breeding sites and out at sea.

Five seal species - the Antarctic fur seal, Weddell seal, elephant seal, leopard seal and crabeater seal are regularly observed on expedition cruises, most often hauled out on ice floes or early in the season at their breeding sites, where they make appealing subjects for photography. The cream-coloured crabeater seal, in spite of its name lives mostly on krill while predatory leopard seals are opportunistic hunters and will take the young of other seals, as well as penguins, fish and krill. By contrast, Weddell seals, the most southerly of all mammals, are formidable divers, reaching depths of up to 600m (1900ft) as they hunt large fish. The southern elephant seal is the largest seal in the world, and is often seen late in the season gathering in large muddy wallows on the shore. Antarctic fur seals, though almost exterminated by 19th century sealers, have made a remarkable comeback and may now number over 2 million on South Georgia alone. Large breeding colonies will also delight visitors to the South Shetland and South Orkney islands throughout the season.

An impressive list of cetaceans frequent Antarctic seas. Commonly seen around the Antarctic Peninsula are humpback whales, often observed lunge feeding near the surface, breaching or slapping their enormous flippers on the water. Fin and sei whales occasionally turn up but the more numerous minke whale is more likely to be encountered near the pack ice, where it is sometimes quite curious, swimming under and around ships, to the delight of visitors. Other species found in Antarctic waters include the killer whale (orca), the largest of the dolphins, solitary male sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales, and the southern right whale, which was once hunted almost to extinction. Suffering the same fate, the largest of all cetaceans, the majestic blue whale is also struggling to recover.

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