2007 Photo Contest, Nature, 1st prize
Photographer

Paul Nicklen

National Geographic

07 March, 2006

A juvenile gentoo penguin takes a look under water before going into the sea. Penguins are a favored element of the leopard seal diet. Leopard seals are the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic. Their reputation for ferocity grew in 2003, when a leopard seal attacked and killed a British scientist, Kirsty Brown. The seals are certainly the top predators of Antarctic waters, but may not always be as aggressive as believed.

About the photographer

Paul Nicklen

As a young boy, Paul Nicklen, a Canadian-born polar specialist and marine biologist, moved to Baffin Island and spent his childhood among the Inuit people. From them he learned t...

This image is collected in