When it comes to wildlife photography, National Geographic is at the top of the heap. The photographers working there have an understanding of the natural world that only comes with years of observation. Paul Nicklen is one of the best in the game, and Antarctica is where he thrives. Freezing cold water, conditions so rough that no one in their right mind would choose to be there, and an abundance of wildlife found nowhere else on Earth lends itself to a certain kind of person. But enduring those hardships teaches something: we need to ensure that the places where these animals live will continue to be liveable.
Nicklen has been traveling to the end of the earth for years. He’s taken pictures of everything, but his emphasis is on the leopard seal. “I need to transport people into this world with this seal and to realize how beautiful it is, and yet how fragile the ecosystem where it lives is,” Nicklen says. “Their ecosystem is crumbling around them because of the lives we’re leading. The only chance it has for survival is us, as humans, changing our behaviors.”
He’s developed a system for interacting with the rare predator. “They are 1,000 pounds; they are 12-feet long; they are bigger than a grizzly bear,” he says. “These leopard seals have never seen a human being in their hunting grounds before. The secret to any big wildlife predator is to let it dictate the encounter.”
