Gao Chuang has no idea how many times he has come to Antarctica in his life.
Heavy snow blocking the road is common for Gao Chuang. As long as there is no snowstorm, he doesn't care.
"The two icebreakers leading the way ahead of us are not just for decoration. We spent so much money to get two icebreakers, aren't they just for use when the road is blocked by heavy snow?" Gao Chuang said with a smile.
"Oh, so this is how icebreakers are used." Xia Pengjie said thoughtfully.
Xiang Yang looked around for a while and said, "Don't worry, the water in this area is not shallow. Snow will melt immediately once it falls on the water. It is basically impossible for the sea surface to freeze, not to mention that we have an icebreaker."
After hearing the comforting words from Xiang Yang and Gao Chuang, everyone immediately put their minds at ease. The two big bosses didn't care, so what were they afraid of
At this moment, Chen Qingsheng suddenly exclaimed: "Look at the sea, there is another seal. Hey, what kind of seal is this? I have never seen one before."
Upon hearing this, Xiang Yang followed Chen Qingsheng's line of sight and looked towards the sea.
Sure enough, in the sea water, there was a strange seal with a very huge body and a very huge nose.
At first, Xiang Yang thought Chen Qingsheng was making a fuss. There were only four species of seals found exclusively in Antarctica. Not knowing which ones they were could only mean that Chen Qingsheng was not very knowledgeable.
After seeing the seal, Xiang Yang was stunned for a moment, "Is this an elephant seal?"
"Oh my god, it's really an elephant seal. How did it get to Antarctica?"
Elephant seals are mammals.
The largest ones are male elephant seals, which can grow up to six meters in length and weigh several tons. They are the king of pinnipeds.
Elephant seals are easy to distinguish. The name of the elephant seal comes from its retractable nose, which is also the origin of its name.
The elephant seal is a slow-moving, unresponsive animal.
Once someone walked gently to the side of an elephant seal, but the seal was completely unaware and continued to sleep soundly on the beach, as if it was the only one on the beach, calm and without any worries.
But one thing you must note is that when watching an elephant seal, never go around behind it, because elephant seals are most afraid of others cutting off their retreat to the sea.
The elephant seal will become furious at anyone who cuts off its escape route, emitting bursts of rough roars.
The movements of elephant seals are difficult.
This is because its front legs are so short that they cannot support its heavy body.
When the Xianghaibin moves on the shore, it must put its entire body weight on its belly to support its body, and then rely on its two underdeveloped forelimbs to move forward with great difficulty.
On some beaches, dozens or hundreds of elephant seals often lie in groups on the beach and sleep lazily.
When elephant seals lie down, they look like piles of dark brown rocks.
The elephant seal that Xiang Yang saw now had a big round head, and a pair of protruding eyes like glass balls on its shiny and broad face.
This elephant seal has four thick and hard hairs stuck upside down above its eyes. It looks very ugly and would be very uncomfortable for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder to see it.
In fact, those were two ugly light eyebrows on an elephant seal.
Xiang Yang doesn't like elephant seals very much.
Because Xiang Yang always believed that the elephant seal was a more disgusting seal than the white seal.
The elephant seal's wide nostrils are always filled with dirty, greasy white secretions, and its fat cheeks are decorated with a few whiskers.
Whenever an elephant seal is excited or angry, its nostrils will flare wide, and its muscles will tense up, making its expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness prominent and obvious.
What made Xiang Yang feel strange was why this elephant seal appeared here.
Elephant seals have a habit of living in groups.
In late winter, they gather at the Valdez Peninsula, with the male elephant seals always leading the way and arriving first.
Two weeks after the male elephant seals arrived, the female elephant seals also came ashore one after another to seek mates.
Newly born elephant seal babies are covered with a layer of curly black hair that is short and soft, like a ball of shiny satin.
Baby elephant seals need to lie in their mother's arms, making sounds like puppies from time to time. When they sleep, they lie on their backs like babies, looking relaxed and content.
Xiang Yang knew that there were two kinds of elephant seals.
One is the northern elephant seal, the male has a long trunk like an elephant, and is distributed in warm climates such as South America.
The second type is the southern elephant seal.
This bull elephant seal has a sac-like growth on the skin above its nose.
The one Xiang Yang is seeing now is a southern elephant seal.
The male elephant seal is generally close to 6.5 meters in length and weighs 1500 to 3500 kg, with the heaviest weighing 3692 kg.
The southern elephant seal has a peculiar shape and a retractable nose. When it is excited or angry, its nose will swell up and make a very loud sound, hence the name "elephant seal".
Because they are found around Antarctica, their full name is "Southern elephant seal".
The southern elephant seal is not only ugly in appearance, but also gray-green in color, giving people a "dirty" feeling. It is not only the appearance that is wrong. In fact, the southern elephant seal is not very hygienic by nature, especially during the annual molting season.
Groups of elephant seals would crowd into muddy puddles on the shore covered with moss plants, making their bodies dirty and covered in mud. But don't be fooled by their huge and fat bodies, they are very flexible. They can bend their heads to their backs and tails more than 90 degrees.
In the past, there were a large number of this type of seal, but because of its large body and abundant fat, it was hunted in large numbers. Now the number of surviving seals is pitifully small.
The southern elephant seal was once distributed in the southern part of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and around many islands near Antarctica, and once reached as far north as the Juan Fernandez Islands in Chile. Now it is only distributed on the oceanic islands surrounding Antarctica and the coast of the Antarctic continent.
Adults and pups are hairless and appear black before molting.
After molting, the skin is generally silver to dark gray and gradually turns to yellow-brown. The neck of the adult male is hairless, and the chest has pink, white and light brown spots.
The northern elephant seal's eyes are large, round, and black. The width of their eyes indicates that they hunt primarily by sight.
Like other seals, the northern elephant seal has atrophied hind limbs that are part of the tail and caudal fin. Each foot has five webbed toes. This pair of flexible feet can be used for pushing water. The pectoral fins are rarely used for swimming.
The hind legs of elephant seals are not suitable for movement on land, and northern elephant seals use flippers to support and propel their bodies. They can walk very fast in a short distance, up to 8 kilometers per hour, which is very rare among mammals.