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Antarctica image: getty
Spanning 5.4 million square miles, the Antarctic landmass— 98 % of which is covered by ice— has no polar bears, or even any native land mammals. Instead, wildlife aficionados brave the Drake Passage for a chance to encounter a cast of marine-adapted creatures, chief among them penguins, which thrive in vast, noisy colonies along the coastline.
Biodiversity hotspots include subarctic South Georgia Island. Sometimes described as the‘ Serengeti of the Southern Ocean’, it’ s home to hundreds of thousands of king penguins, elephant seals and giant petrels. On the more remote Snow Hill Island in the Weddell Sea, visitors can spot Antarctica’ s signature species, the emperor penguin, while those lucky enough to make it to Cape Adare can behold the world’ s largest colony of diminutive Adélies— a quarter of a million breeding pairs in total.
The southernmost continent also supports populations of hardy Weddell, crabeater, leopard and elephant seals, which haul out on the ice to breed. The Southern Ocean attracts pods of humpback, blue and minke whales, while albatrosses, petrels, skuas and sheathbills glide over the open water.
Most expedition cruises depart from the Argentinean city of Ushuaia, swapping ice breakers for nimble rigid inflatable boats once they reach Antarctic waters. Exploring ice caves, taking a polar plunge or overnighting on the tundra: it’ s all part of the experience. Austral summer starts with penguin breeding season in November— when courting and nest-building rituals are on display— and culminates with whale season in February, when sightings of humpbacks and orcas are almost guaranteed.
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