On all our landings on South Georgia we saw plenty of mammals. However, all mammals on the islands are marine animals. The most obvious were the Southern Elephant Seals. The dominant males were setting up territory, and the biggest of these were battling for the right to mate with the females that were also already on the beaches, having recently given birth to their pups. Younger males were practising these fights, getting ready for the day when they would be giving it their all for the right to mate.

Some of the fights were pretty gruesome. Although we only saw one full bodied battle, we did see the result on one poor old boy, with his extended proboscis, the reason they are called ‘elephant seals’, badly damaged after an obviously viscous battle.

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