Amid the profusion and wonderful confusion of a variety of nesting seabirds on Glacier Bay National Park’s South Marble Island, we beheld the guttural growls of a large group of Steller sea lions. Named for Bering’s young headstrong and talented naturalist, these Alaskan fin-footed beasts are the largest of the sea lion kind. Due to recent plummeting population numbers, Steller sea lions were placed on the endangered species list just four years ago.
The hauled out sea lions were in colorful company on the small meta-limestone island amongst tufted puffins, common murres and other curious seabirds. The puffins and murres are members of the alcid or auk family, said to be the northern hemisphere’s alter-ego of the penguin. Within the past two days we have seen eight members of this group including: two species each of puffin, murrelet and auklet, and one each of guillemot and murre.
The national park ranger who rode aboard our ship with us today referred to the piled up Steller sea lions as extraneous males. Dominant mature bulls are out on one of Southeast Alaska’s few outer coast rookeries, defending territories where females arrive to pup and breed. We watched the king-of-the-hill and crowd-surfing antics of the bachelor sea lions. Without warning, some unknown agitation stirred the pile of animals to action, sending a quarter of them one after the other raucously cascading down the stained rocks into the water. The remaining animals lifted and bobbed their heads in excitement. One Sea Bird guest related the group diving dynamic to that of a calving brown glacier. Later in the day we watched the thunderous calving of the powdery blue Margerie Glacier.
This day in Southeast Alaska was like most here with its myriad of natural things discovered. The sea lions and seabirds were but one impression of this place. A varicolored brown bear pulling over mussel-coated boulders on the beach in search of intertidal treats and family dinner at the bald eagle nest were also part of the symphony of today’s landscape.
The hauled out sea lions were in colorful company on the small meta-limestone island amongst tufted puffins, common murres and other curious seabirds. The puffins and murres are members of the alcid or auk family, said to be the northern hemisphere’s alter-ego of the penguin. Within the past two days we have seen eight members of this group including: two species each of puffin, murrelet and auklet, and one each of guillemot and murre.
The national park ranger who rode aboard our ship with us today referred to the piled up Steller sea lions as extraneous males. Dominant mature bulls are out on one of Southeast Alaska’s few outer coast rookeries, defending territories where females arrive to pup and breed. We watched the king-of-the-hill and crowd-surfing antics of the bachelor sea lions. Without warning, some unknown agitation stirred the pile of animals to action, sending a quarter of them one after the other raucously cascading down the stained rocks into the water. The remaining animals lifted and bobbed their heads in excitement. One Sea Bird guest related the group diving dynamic to that of a calving brown glacier. Later in the day we watched the thunderous calving of the powdery blue Margerie Glacier.
This day in Southeast Alaska was like most here with its myriad of natural things discovered. The sea lions and seabirds were but one impression of this place. A varicolored brown bear pulling over mussel-coated boulders on the beach in search of intertidal treats and family dinner at the bald eagle nest were also part of the symphony of today’s landscape.
