Antarctic wildlife

Plants

The great majority of the Antarctic Continent is covered by snow and ice year round and the conditions are too severe for any plant life. At the milder maritime edges and on the surrounding islands however are lichens, liverworts, mosses and two species of flowering plants: the Antarctic hairgrass and the Antarctic pearlwort.

Animals

The most obvious and commonly seen animals of Antarctica are the birds but marine mammals are also often seen.

Drake Passage: albatrosses - including the magnificent Wandering Albatross - and other seabirds such as Giant and Cape Petrels.
Antarctic Peninsula: enormous rookeries of Gentoo, Chinstrap and Adélie Penguins, Blue-eyed Shags, Kelp Gulls, Cape Petrels, Snowy Sheathbills, Antarctic Terns, Weddell, crabeater and leopard seals, orcas, humpback whales and Minke whales.
Falklands: several species found nowhere else in the world, including flightless Steamer Ducks, Magellanic Penguins, Gentoo Penguins, Rockhopper Penguins, Black-browed Albatrosses and Blue-eyed Shags, Peale's and Commerson's dolphins.
South Georgia: thousands of King Penguins, Gentoo Penguins, Wandering Albatrosses, fur seals and southern elephant seals.
Ross Sea region: Emperor Penguins, Minke whales and orcas.
Campbell Island: each austral summer, 15,000 Royal Albatrosses nest among clusters of brightly coloured plants.
Macquarie Island: three million Royal Penguins (virtually the entire world population) and King Penguins (some 100,000 birds), southern elephant seals and four species of albatross.
Tasman Sea: whales, dolphins and seabirds (including White-chinned and Giant Petrels and Wandering, Black-browed and Sooty Albatrosses).

View an actual Birds and mammals list compiled during an Explorers' Cruise.

Please note: Species information is given as a guide only; exact routes, programs and wildlife encounters vary according to ice and weather conditions. Flexibility is the key to the success of expeditions.