tiabunna's photos with the keyword: skua

Following the interest in my previous shot (link in note) of the pair of South Polar Skuas Stercorarius maccormicki , here's a wider shot to give more context. Although it's easy to dislike skuas because they predate on penguin chicks and eggs, they also fill a very useful role as scavengers, keeping the area clean: natural decay in Antarctica is very slow indeed.

A pair of South Polar Skuas Stercorarius maccormicki which have just laid claim to a spot in an Adelie penguin colony, screeching defiance to other skuas circling overhead. With neighbours like these, you have to feel sorry for the penguin in the background! I later showed this to a French biologist, who told me he had banded the nearer skua several years previously and appreciated the information on its location.

Wherever there are penguins, Southern (Great) Skua gulls are never far away: there's one up there in the note! It may seem unkind, nasty, brutal and all that, but skuas live largely on penguin chicks and eggs. They do have to eat too, after all! And when they aren't harassing penguins they (and Giant Petrels) do a good job of clearing the beaches of carrion such as dead seals. Photo taken from a bobbing zodiac, offshore at Macquarie Island. :)