Still Mainly Females

Even though June is underway, many of the continually bickering females are still present and are sticking firmly to our local beaches much like last year at this time.

Click here for female photos.

If you look carefully, you might notice that some of these females sport brightly colored red, yellow, or green tail-flipper tags from the Channel Islands further down the coast indicating that these specific females were tagged as weaners in that area. ( The white tags indicate they were tagged here at the Piedras Blancas colony. )

These pregnant adult females are apparently in no rush to leave for their next session of feeding. Instead, they're choosing to mingle and squabble within the shore-based feminine masses. Amongst these females, quite a few of them are displaying beginning signs of eye infections as well as other sores or infections.


Mouth Cyst on Female

Another interesting aside is that these females are occupying pocket beaches that in the birthing/mating season are traditionally taken over by the males.


Young Male Opponents

Click here to see young males in action on land and in the water.

The few younger males that have so far dared to venture to our shores at this time of year have basically two choices if they don't want to face these rather ferocious females. They can remain bottling off-shore or find small beaches that are unoccupied where they can go about their youthful male activities such as mock-fighting.

Click here to see video displaying fancy male moves along with a great variety of vocalizations.

Adult Female Bonding

As May passes the mid-way mark, many of the adult females that have been quietly resting and bonding with other female beach-goers on their chosen female-only central California beaches have recently picked up the pace of their usual bickering and jostling.

Since resuming their argumentative tactics, I've been afforded numerous opportunities to capture many close-up photos immortalizing the amazing mouth and tongue actions of these feisty females.
Click here for these fascinating photos.

Now that most of the females have already shed their old and dried-out brown-colored fur, it seems as though the time is fast approaching for them to go fishing sporting their brand new sleek gray fur. Maybe their aggressive behavior signals that they're psyching themselves up in preparation for the tough hunting times in their immediate future.

Click here for photos of their current behavior.

If the scientists are correct, then all of these masses of adult females are pregnant once again, and the fetuses that they carry will now rapidly start to grow as the females get their fill of plenty of good seafood in their Pacific hunting grounds.

Even though scientists are of the belief that elephant seals don't eat when they come to the central coast of California, the strong fishy smell emanating from them is often very prevalent when they first come ashore. Judging by this fishy smell and my observations of the searching/hunting behavior elephant seals exhibit in the shallow coastal waters coupled with watching them snack on tide-pool inhabitants as well as seaweed strongly suggests to me that elephant seals do indeed eat, at least a little, while here.

Click here for video of female action.

As the females are readying themselves to 'push off', the sub-adult males are starting to show up but are remaining offshore well away from the nipping, feisty females. Instead of trying to share the beach with these aggressive females, they're choosing to stay a little ways out as they relax and keep track of who's approaching by doing their bottling maneuvers. ( Bottling is floating and keeping their noses pointing skyward. )