Antarctic Penguin Hitches Ride on a Tourist Boat — And It Probably Saved Its Life

Leopard seals in Antarctica often cling to the walls of icy fissures or lurk around the shorelines, waiting to grab a penguin roaming around. With only their nostrils emerging from the sea waters, the seals employ cunning strategies to trap these flightless birds. But one intelligent penguin in Antarctica knew that he was all alone, and he had to save himself from a leopard seal that was about to prey upon him. The little bird noticed a tourist boat approaching in his direction. He jumped aboard the boat, escaping the predator. Photographer Vladimir Seliverstov (@silverphotography.ru) captured the dramatic scene in a video.

“An Adelie penguin jumped into our Zodiac [inflatable boat] while we were cruising around an iceberg,” Seliverstov explained in the description of a YouTube re-post of the video by ViralHog. “He was escaping from a leopard seal and didn't want to go back into the water, so we decided to take him to the iceberg where his friends were waiting.”

The footage shows a boat gliding on the icy waters of Antarctica with tourists sitting in it. Suddenly, the little penguin jumps atop the hull of the boat. The crew members pull out their cameras and start snapping pictures of the bird. As they approach a floating ice sheet, the camera captures a huddle of penguins standing on top of the ice, watching this lone bird riding on the boat. “He’s gonna make them jealous,” someone says in the video. Once the boat comes near the icy chunk, the clever penguin sees his opportunity and turns around to face the ice. Catching a chance, he quickly jumps onto the ice floe and waddles towards its flock. 

It was his happy day. The little penguin didn’t just save himself from a predator but also hitched a free ride on a fancy boat to reach home. “It was nice chatting with you guys. But I have to get back to work,” he probably said before jumping away, as the user @napoli81963 tried to put into words. @atpilot grinned at the defeated seal, saying, “Now some poor seal has gone hungry!”

It is unusually relieving to see a penguin escape from the seal so easily; otherwise, every day incidents unfold where at least one of these birds is separated from the huddle and is eaten up by seals. As Sarah Culler of National Geographic recorded in footage, these seals are brutal when it comes to hunting the penguins. So clever, they hide in the cover of the ice until a penguin comes around and mistakes their nostrils for a fish. Then, it plunges into a full dive and pounces upon the bird, satiating its hunger.

In a BBC Earth documentary, an expert explains that these days, penguins hesitate to go near the edge of sea ice, knowing that a leopard seal would be on the prowl. They stand there, their bodies pressed against a wall of ice, as a deadly seal emerges from the water. They squirm and tilt backwards. Despite all this, at least one little bird succeeded in pulling itself out of the trenches of death.

You can follow Vladimir Seliverstov (@silverphotography.ru) on Instagram for more videos of polar landscapes and nature. 

More on Green Matters

Orphaned Baby Penguin Was Terrified of Water — but One Guy Helped the Bird Overcome Her Fear

Antarctic Engineers Have an Unlikely Team Member Working With Them — a Curious Gentoo Penguin

Polite Penguin Waits For Humans to Finish Taking a Selfie in Antarctica and Move Out of Its Way