{"id":60604,"date":"2025-08-05T16:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/60604\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:59:09","slug":"nat-geo-photographer-paul-nicklen-reveals-he-was-almost-killed-by-horny-elephant-seal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/60604\/","title":{"rendered":"Nat Geo Photographer Paul Nicklen Reveals He Was Almost Killed by Horny Elephant Seal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>A 7,000-pound rutting elephant seal came for Nicklen. <\/p>\n

Photographer Paul Nicklen is one of the most famous nature documentarians of the age, but he recently revealed how his career was nearly cut short. <\/p>\n

Sea Legacy, an ocean conservation co-founded by Nicklen and his wife Cristina Mittermeier, published a social media post<\/a> recalling the time Nicklen was in South Georgia, Antarctica, in 2008 and was aiming to become the first person to film a breeding male elephant seal underwater. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese animals can weigh over 7,000 lbs and reach 20 feet long, similar to a pickup truck. During breeding season, they go into this kind of trance: breed or kill,\u201d writes Sea Legacy. <\/p>\n

However, when Nicklen entered the water, a rutting bull mistook him for a rival and charged at him \u2014 captured in a terrifying photo posted by Sea Legacy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was probably the closest our co-founder, Paul Nicklen, has ever come to dying in the wild,\u201d Sea Legacy writes. \u201cMistaking him for a rival, the seal tried to crush him again and again. Paul thought, \u2018So this is how it\u2019s going to end\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fortunately, Nicklen survived the encounter and has continued to document the ocean, spreading awareness about delicate marine ecosystems around the world. <\/p>\n

He did unintentionally manage to capture an awesome photo of the encounter, essentially inside the angry elephant seal\u2019s mouth. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a wildlife photographer, you must immerse yourself in the habitats and proximity of some pretty interesting, and sometimes dangerous animals,\u201d Nicklen wrote of the encounter. <\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, the subjects are unaffected and uninterested by my presence and carry on with their natural behaviours. However, my encounter with a 7,000-pound elephant seal turned out to be a moment I wish I had foreseen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicklen explained that the above photo was actually an accident since he was fumbling around trying to get out of the water as quickly as possible when his camera fired. <\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily for me, I was still in shallow water near the shore when the seal came darting for me, and I managed to escape without injury,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had witnessed their aggressive behaviour earlier in the day in attempts to breed, and I should have known better. This was definitely an eye-opener and a valuable lesson in the dangers of pushing boundaries in the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, PetaPixel spoke to both Nicklen and Mittermeier<\/a> about National Geographic\u2018s 2024 nature documentary series, Photographer.<\/p>\n

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 7,000-pound rutting elephant seal came for Nicklen. Photographer Paul Nicklen is one of the most famous nature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,45283,229,45284,88,45285,45286,45287],"class_list":{"0":"post-60604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-cristinamittermeier","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-elephantseal","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-naturephotographer","16":"tag-paulnicklen","17":"tag-sealegacy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}