Antarctica, 2019
An emperor penguin adult with two teenage chicks. Note that emperor adults can raise at most 1 chick per season, so at least one of these chicks came from another adult. During the Antarctic spring (November), the chicks are growing up fast and need to put on a lot of weight before the sea ice melts and they enter the water for the first time. The chicks are also wandering away from their parents, sometimes for hours at a time, socializing with the other chicks, starting to form bonds.
Faroe Islands, 2016
No mass gatherings? Try telling that to these puffins, who gather by the thousands in summertime to tend to their burrows and raise their young (“pufflings”). You’d think that having thousands of birds in one place would result in a deafening, squabbly situation, but no … these birds were super quiet and orderly. A whoosh of wings and a puffin would appear, like Apparating. Another whoosh of wings and it’d be gone. Aside from that — silence!
Galápagos Islands, 2017
Social anti-distancing at its best: One reptile climbs atop another’s head.
At home, 2005
Otto was always a small cat, but in his younger days he was quite a bit smaller, and he liked to squeeze into the same cubby with his big pal Buddha.
Alaska, 2018
A brown bear cub nuzzles her mother on the cheek.
Antarctica, 2015
Several social anti-distancing gentoo penguins gather closely on an icy beach while one of their buddies catches up.
Costa Rica, 2013
Two nazca boobies squabble noisily at close range.
Costa Rica, 2013
Several olive ridley turtles return to sea at dawn after laying their eggs on the beach the night before.
Svalbard, 2014
Two male walruses socialize in a sheltered bay in front of mountains and glaciers. They may be awkward on land, but in water they are unbelievably graceful.
Canada, 2016
Two polar bears jaw at each other playfully amongst the muted red-brown autumn colors. They’re waiting for the water to freeze so they can head out on the ice and hunt for seals.
