Guest Post by Paul Nicklen | Nature Has No Villains or Victims, Only Balance

This is a guest post by WWSG thought leader, Paul Nicklen. All images are copyrighted. To purchase Paul’s work, visit his website.

“Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Out of all the wildlife I have had the privilege of photographing – grizzlies, polar bears, sperm whales – there is only one animal that has ever caused me to reconsider getting into the water. The year was 2006, and the animal in question was plucking penguins with lightning speed from the Antarctic depths before devouring them feet away from where our team bobbed in a little inflatable dinghy. After we watched the scene for a short while in silence, bits of penguin flying in different directions, my good friend Göran finally turned to me and said, “Time to get in the water, yeah?” That was how I met my first leopard seal.

For those of you who are not familiar with the species, it is important to understand leopard seals are not quite your average seal. For starters, they are the only species of seal that regularly hunts penguins, including the 4-ft emperor penguin, and females can reach over 13 ft in length. While leopard seals may not weigh as much as their giant cousins, such as elephant seals, I can personally attest to exactly how heavy these animals are after an incident about twelve years ago that left me bruised on the ice.

One of my many National Geographic assignments brought me to the remote Ross Sea, where my buddy Göran and I started noticing a leopard seal near our camp. Feeling like we had struck gold, we began filming emperor penguins and, we hoped afterwards, our new spotted friend. Early in the shoot, I wandered to the ice edge with Göran on one side of me and our team’s doctor on the other. We peered into the water, in hopes of a glimpse of the seal when the surface suddenly exploded in front of our faces.

A sleek dark body soared at eye level straight for my head. I barely had enough time to throw my arm up and protect my face before being flattened by an equally startled leopard seal. The two of us slid, almost comically, across the ice before drifting to a stop in a pool of seawater. With the wind knocked out of me, and started shaking the stars from my head and climbed back to my feet as my confused assailant headed back to the water – the seal retreating to the sea and myself retreating to a bottle of ‘emergency’ Scotch at camp. It was one of the few encounters that left me questioning whether I should quit the assignment or not.

Over the decades, I have learned that the greatest things in life rarely come easy. If I am feeling a little afraid or vulnerable, it is usually an indication that I am exactly where I need to be. At least, that is what I told myself as I slipped into the water nearly 17 years ago to meet the 12-ft female leopard seal thrashing penguins in front of our boat. For those of you who are familiar with my work, you know how this story ends. Within seconds of hitting the water, the seal came surging towards me with her mouth wide open. I braced, holding my camera up for protection, only the impact never came. Instead, the leopard seal did something so extraordinary it forever changed my perspective of this misunderstood species – she attempted to feed me a live penguin. Then, for four days straight, she went from offering live penguins to weakened penguins to finally trying to get me to accept a dead one. I felt terrible for the penguins, but none went to waste as she ate them all.

Since extricating ourselves from the natural world, human beings have become spectators in the lives of the wild beings around us. And, as spectators do, we find ourselves taking sides and casting animals in traditional story roles – villain and hero, hunter and the hunted. – Leopard seals are not the mindless or malicious killers some people have made them out to be. They are our fellow beings just trying to survive, capable of immense generosity and even empathy.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this journey. And a special thank you to those of you who have taken the time to write and reply to these stories. You have no idea how much your notes of thanks or comments keep me going.

With gratitude,