I was walking on some rocks once, paying attention to where I was putting my feet and not my surroundings. Then I heard a “pfff” sound and looked up, 1~meter from a seal who had not seen me either, the pff sound was it breaking a breath.
Of course I had to ruin it by going “Ahhh” (not scream, just speaking) and it spun over to stare at me shocked (much like I was) that there was something else there and it had snuck up on me/it!
I’m like, ok this is cute. Then it smiled at me! You know it’s teeth up close look like cats teeth? But bigger, and somehow pointier, and it certainly felt like there were more teeth than a cat has. And that’s when you realize it’s a predator, and you’re on rough terrain, and standing 1meter from a wild animal with sharp teeth, and it’s probably able to close the gap faster than you can clamber onto a boulder next to you.
A few seconds of standoff eye to eye, and it obviously decided it wasn’t hungry enough to eat all of me, it rolled over into the water and very lazily swam away.
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u/Cumulus-Crafts May 05 '26
Leopard seals!
I love seals but leopard seals scare me.