Unusual Amount of Adult Female Elephant Seals

Strangely enough, as we near the middle of May, the amount of adult female elephant seals ashore to molt still seems to be increasing.

( Unconfirmed sources claim that there are many more adult females on the beaches at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal colony this year than in previous years.)

Maybe due to the extreme overcrowding on the part of the adult females, the remaining few of this year's weaners can only be observed on the small pocket beaches that the adult females have chosen not to occupy.

Another point of interest is that the vast majority of juvenile elephant seals also appear to be female this year instead of having about a 50-50 mix.

True, a few juvenile males can be seen mock sparring on the beaches and in the shallows. A couple of sub-adult males can also be found roaring on the beach or in the shallows.

If I were a scientist, I would be wondering why there not only seems to be far fewer juvenile male elephant seals to date this spring, but why the usual male competetiveness also seems to be absent.

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Catastrophic Molt

Prime beach space is beginning to be hard to find as more and more large elephant seals work their way up onto the beaches to join the already present weaners. These weaners, who are further honing their swimming, diving, and foraging skills now have to try to stay out of the way of the older elephant seals as hierarchy rules.

Over the last couple of weeks both adult female elephant seals as well as juvenile males ( juvenile male = 1-4 years old ) and juvenile females ( juvenile female = 1-2 years old ) have been crowding onto the beaches of central California to begin their annual catastrophic molt. ( The sub-adult males and adult males will come a little later on for their turn.)

What is a catastrophic molt ? Over a period of many months, elephant seal fur changes color from a gray to dark brown to a lighter brownish hue or even a pale tan.

Maybe this change in fur pigment indicates that the fur becomes less oily over time causing the elephant seal to shed its fur and attached skin about once a year. Also, maybe because the elephant seal spends so much of its life in the salty ocean water, its fur simply has to be replenished as the salts dry it out. Another factor might be that as the elephant seal expands both in length and in girth, it needs to shed its outer layer much like a snake does.

The fur and skin peel off in both larger and smaller pieces revealing the fresh new layer of gray fur below. ( See extra photos.)

During the month this molt takes to complete, scientists believe the molting elephant seals eat nothing even though they often enter the ocean during this period.

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Weaners Swimming and Foraging in the Creeks, Tide-Pools and Ocean

The active weaners are now engaged in their all-important water skills such as swimming and foraging as they hone their skills and beach-hop up and down the central California coast.
These days, the weaners are not spending quite as much time sleeping on the beaches conserving energy. Instead, they're proving they are just about as adept in the water as their older relatives.
In the extra photos, you can see some of the antics that these busy youngsters get up to on a regular basis.

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Weaner Time

This time of year is all about weaners ( AKA weaned elephant seal pups )on the beaches of the central coast of California.

With almost all of the females departed out to sea to forage and regain the pounds lost during their birthing and mating time ashore, the weaners are now having to learn how to take care of themselves.

The weaners are not completely without adult supervision though as some watchful and protective adult males remain on the beaches until the weaners get more proficient at swimming and start beach hopping.

Newly weaned weaners, like the older elephant seals, spend a lot of time sleeping while on shore as they're conserving energy and subsisting on their blubber.

As the weaners grow restless however, they spend less and less time sleeping and more time moving around the beaches and bluffs and communicating with each other. Also, as time passes, they start honing their life-essential swimming and foraging skills.

If weaners are to survive and grow to adulthood, it's imperative that they quickly learn how to find food and protect themselves both on land and at sea.

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Over-Sized Elephant Seal Weaners

Despite quite a few pups starving to death ( see blog post 2-6-10 ), there also seems to be an inordinate amount of extra large weaners occupying a certain beach on the central coast of California.

The average weaned pup AKA weaner is between 4 and 5 feet long and weighs anywhere from 150lbs to just over 300lbs. ( Bear in mind that when one of these weaners was born a little over a month ago it was 3-4 feet long and weighed 60-80lbs.)

At this one beach, I have been astonished to observe that about 50% of the weaners are extremely huge. Their lengths are 5-6 feet, and they must weigh in at around 500+ lbs.

( Remember, a full-grown adult female is on average 8-9 feet long and weighs anywhere from 800lbs to 1,500lbs....and this is after several years. )

Why have so many weaners grown to this gargantuan size ?

Maybe this phenomenon came about because the moms and their pups became isolated up in the dunes and had plenty of undisturbed nursing time !? Due to the constant high waves and high tides during the merciless winter storms, sheer sand bluff walls were formed keeping the large male elephant seals at bay for several weeks down on the flats of the beach until they were able to wear down the sand walls and climb up into the lofty nursery.

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Mating Season Elephant Seal Style

As the females come into heat at the end of the nursing period for their pups, males of all ages come from far and wide to mate with as many females as they can.

Apart from their major problem of getting past the large and savvy alpha male, there's also the matter of the choosy females as some of them are not too keen on males that 'storm' the beach.

The huge size difference between the adult male and the adult female is known as sexual dimorphism, with the giant alpha males often growing to 3 times the size of the adult females.
( Wow...imagine being squashed by one of these titans ! )

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Click here for a video of a not too willing female.

Starving to Death

This birthing season has been extremely traumatic for the elephant seal pups and their moms as the unusually strong winter storms and extraordinarily high tides have been battering the beaches of the central coast of California almost non-stop since December, causing the size of the necessary dry beaches to shrink horrifically.

After becoming separated from their moms by the high tides time and again, many desperate elephant seal pups have taken to trying to find milk from other female elephant seals.

Unfortunately for them, the older elephant seal females tend to want to protect their single pup and chase off these motherless, starving pups by barking and/or nipping at them.

However, this year it's also been quite common to see younger females attempting to successfully nourish and care for multiple pups.

Despite this concerted community effort by so many young females, it has been and continues to be heart-breaking to observe countless immature pups starving to death after struggling for days to find enough fat-rich milk to keep them alive.

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