Fauna and Flora
In the Antarctic the fauna and flora don't present a homogeneous space distribution. In the atmosphere germs don't exist but there are bacteria, yeasts and microfungi. This has been proven by making special cultivations. The flora is very poor on the continent; there are only lichens, mosses and some Dechampsia colobampthus and poa.
The fauna on the continent is made up of spineless arthropods. The Antarctic is considered the biggst desert in the world.
But in the sea, life is fabulous. The long periods of light, the oxygenation, the wealth in salts in the water are all features that contribute to this wealth.
Directly or indirectly the whole Antarctic fauna feeds on plankton.

Birds
All the Antarctic birds have webbed feet, except for the Antarctic dove and all of them migrate towards the north at the beginning of autumn.
The albatross is often found in the Antarctic and it stands out for his span (up to 3,40 m) and majestic glide. The petreles are characterised by one or two nasal tubes on the beak: the giant petrel, the grey petrel, the Antarctic petrel, the Wilson petrel and the snow petrel, which is completely white.
Other fauna members are the blue eyed cormorant, the gull, the skúa or brown gull and the South American tern that migrates from Pole to Pole, and the Antarctic dove. But of all Antarctic birds, penguins are the ones that attract the attention for its complete adaptation to the water and because of their way of walking. They are also eminently social birds and they live in communities well over 150.000 individuals, Of the 17 species of penguins that live on earth, only four build their nests in the Antarctic.

Adelia Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae): head and black beak, with white edges skirting the eyes.
Antarctic Penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus): black feathers around the throat.
Papua Penguin (Pygoscelis papua): orange-red beak and paws, with two white stains on the head that looks like a hood.
Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri): 100-110 cm high, long and arched beak; at both sides of the neck they have an orange gold beard. Their weight reaches 25-30 kg. Their colonies are inside the Polar Circle and they generally live on the ice. They don't build nest and they brood during the polar night.

Other common penguins outside the Antarctic sector which only sometimes appear in the Antarctic during their migrations are:

The King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonica), of similar size to that of the emperor penguin, the Penguin Macaroni (Eudyptes crysolophus) and the Penguin with yellow feathers (Eudyptes crestata), of medium size.

Surroundings of the Base Esperanza (17 K)

Mammals
The mammals that are found in the Antarctic are those of the group of the seals and the cetaceans.
Seals: the true seals are of regular size and they have except for the tarsus, their back limbs inside the body. They lack ears and they are always in the water. They leave the water only to sleep or breed.
Among the seals are
Weddell Seal (Leptonychotes weddelli): of dark grey coat with yellowish stains. It measures more than 3 m and it can weigh 300-400 kg.
Crab Seal (Lobodon carcinophagus): of yellowish white coat, it measures about 3 m and weighs 200 - 250 kilograms.
Seal of Ross (Ommatophoca rosii): of dark grey coat with clear parts in the chest and neck. It is not bigger than 2 m, they are very rare.
Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonine): the male can be 7 m long while the female doesn't reach 3 m. Its skin is thick, of brown colour. The male inflates the muzzle at will, looking like a small trumpet.

Cetaceans: they are mammals of lung breathing, totally adapted to the aquatic habitat, they cannot live outside it because their weight presses their thorax preventing them from breathing. In their adaptation they have lost their back limbs, keeping the front ones, which they use as fins.
They have also lost the coat; they only have some bristles in the face. Under the skin they have a layer of fat of 15 cm or more (which they use as thermal insulation and as reserves for mating time and breeding which is made in warmer seas where the food is not plentiful).
When its enormous head emerges from the water they exhale the heated air by two nasal holes.
This hot air, loaded with vapour, is like a jet of water that is seen from the distance.
The gestation in some species lasts 16 months and the baby can measure the third of the size of the parents. The cetaceans are divided according to their mouths: there are whales without teeth or bearded whales. The first ones lack teeth; they have some curious formations implanted in the palate which serve them as a filter to obtain the krill, they feed exclusively on them.
Whales with as much as 3 tons of krill in their stomach have been found. The most common species among the bearded ones are the blue whales, which are the biggest of them all.