Images(3)

Elephant Seal Pup

Photographer Valerie Taylor (born 1935)

DateFebruary 1982

Object numberANMS1458[851]

NamePhotographic slide

MediumColour transparency film, paper

DimensionsOverall (Inc carrier): 50 × 50 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Valerie Taylor in memory of Ron Taylor

Terms

DescriptionPinnipeds are “featherfooted” marine mammals with flipper-like appendages including seals, elephant seals, sea lions and walruses. They can be separated into three families of either eared seals, true seals, and walruses. Eared seals have small visible external ears that makes them less streamlined while swimming compared to true seals and walruses that lack external ears. However, all pinnipeds are fast swimmers, and some can reach speeds of 25-30 km/h during short distances. They are expert divers, able to stay underwater for up to 80 minutes on one breath. SignificanceValerie has a special connection with animals and this is best seen in her photography of marine species. As an accomplished photographer alongside her husband’s underwater filming, they have an amazing catalogue of films and images they created together. Valerie’s imagery has been published across books and magazines around the world. She has numerous prestigious honours for her contributions to conservation by using these pictures to help promote the importance and protection of the animals she has dived with and gotten to know firsthand. Valerie’s photographs also give you an intimate viewing into her career. Her images take you behind the scenes of filmmaking, epic seafaring journeys to remote spots and for many locations, capturing marine ecosystems often when they were much healthier than what can be seen today.