Female Catastrophic Molting Time

Many of the females of all ages are now lounging around our beaches as their old fur along with its skin peels off to reveal their nice new silver gray fur ready for use.

This is probably the only time of year that the females actually club together without too much bickering. For some reason, these newly impregnated females nearly always seem at odds with elephant seals of all ages and of both sexes. Maybe it has something to do with that they're either being mounted and/or pregnant for most of their adult lives !?

Click here to see video of some of our current female visitors.

Along with the females, you can see youngsters born a couple or three years ago as well as few weaners from this recent birthing season.

As we head into May, more of the young males will be showing up to take their turn at the catastrophic molt. These are the fun ones to watch as they're almost constantly on the move and participating in numerous hierarchical physical bouts.

Click here for more photos of the current visitors.

The Start of the Fall Haul-Out

As almost all the big adult male elephant seals have left to fortify their strength and body weight in preparation for the up-coming December territorial fights, the beaches along the central coast of California are currently occupied by only a few dozen mainly tan-furred youngsters doing their thing.

As September heads towards October in this Fall Haul-Out season, however, more and more elephant seals in the younger age brackets will be looking to enjoy spending some quality shore-time on these usually noisy and busy beaches.

Adding to the mix of weaners and yearlings as we go through October, energy-filled ‘teenage’ males will be charging ashore delighting onlookers with their rock-’n’-roll style fights. In addition, alongside these combative youngsters, a few pregnant young females will also be trying to get some shore-rest on the ‘quiet side of town’ away from the boisterous young males.


Click here see video of a young elephant seal wrestling seaweed.

Click here to see more photos.

...And the Males Are Still Here

We're half-way through August, and there are still quite a number of large adult males hanging around the beaches at Elephant Seal Land. Though not as feisty as a few weeks ago, you can still see sporadic short encounters, but it looks as though they're mainly resting up before taking off on yet another foraging trip.

Click here to see some action close-ups.

Into the mix of the remaining giants, a handful of small weaners can already be seen resting or mildly sparring like young puppies.

Click here to see a cute video of a couple of weaners playing like puppies.
( The remarkable thing is that one's a female and the other's a male. Usually you only see young male weaners interacting in this way.)

Click here to see more photos.

Now for the Bigger Males

With the pregnant adult females apparently loathe to depart on their BIG summer foraging trip, many of the sub-adult male elephant seals have been reluctant to come ashore and get picked upon by these queens of the marine mammals. Instead, they have mainly chosen to stay just off-shore bottling and lazily swimming around in the shallow bays. The few males that did venture ashore tried to hide quietly amongst the restlessly quarreling moms without getting booted off again. ( Adult female elephant seals are infamous for picking on each other and keeping unwanted suitors/intruders from getting too chummy.)

Click here for photos of females.

However, as June draws to close for this year, and with these ruling females gone, the favoritized beaches are beginning to fill up with bigger males.

Click here for photos of sub-adult males and juveniles.

As we move through the summer months of July and August, we should see quite a few of the large male elephant seals taking up month-long residencies on the beaches of the central coast of California so they can go through their catastrophic molt and get some shore rest.

Click here to see video of adolescent males ganging up on an intruding male.

Currently, dominancy fighting is not at a premium as the newly arrived males are getting some R&R after their first long feeding trip of the year. But, as they recoup, no doubt their usual squabbling and hierarchal clashes will commence once again.

Click here for photos of bigger males.

Mostly Adult Females

Almost all of the favored elephant seal beaches are so packed with the big adult female elephant seals that it's hard to spot any sand. Most of these pregnant female seals have finished molting for this season but are still resting up on the beaches before heading back out to sea to feed.

There are still a few juveniles also hanging around, but all this year's weaners have finally left on their first BIG foraging voyage.

The next group to come in mass to molt will be the sub-adult males. With so many adult females still enjoying our coast, beach space will be at a premium as the guys start to come ashore in larger numbers. In fact, one can already see and hear a few of these young males both in the water and on land.

Click here for more photos. ( Because we've had so many unusually calm days, many of the photos show the elephant seals doing their thing under water for a change. )

Click here for video of females relaxing in the tidal surges.

Click here for video of young male having a relaxing time in a bay.

Click here to see video of young males trying to make decisions.

Molting Time for Females and Juveniles

The first group of elephant seals to return to the beaches on the central coast of California to start their molt are the adult females. Pregnant once more, and having regained their lost weight during the recent birthing/mating season, they have once again taken over their favorite beaches in order to rest and shed their old fur, which has become tan-colored over time. Some of these adult females are really huge...close to 10 feet in length and looking rotundly healthy after only having been absent for a month. It's hard to believe that they left about a month ago looking thin and worn out.

The catastrophic molt, as it's called, takes close to one month to complete. During this time the 'old' fur and attached skin comes off in large pieces so that the new sleek gray fur can be exposed and readied for 'duty'. During this changeover, the elephant seals seem more sensitive to heat than otherwise and can be seen lying either at the water's edge or swimming in the cool Pacific waters if the mercury starts to rise.

At this time, since there are no large males around, the adult females are the dominant ones on the beaches. Amongst these constantly bickering females, one can also see molting juveniles of both sexes and quite a few newly-arrived weaners that are beach-hopping their way to the hunting grounds.

One- and two-year-old elephant seals sometimes suffer from scabby molt, believed to be a skin disease rather than a true molt. ( Click here to read more. )

As April proceeds, sub-adult males will start to come ashore to start the molting period.

Click here for current photos.

Weaners Galore

Since the threat of a far-reaching tsunami caused by the devastating 9.0 earthquake in Japan has finally dissipated, one would think that the elephant seals camped out on the shores of the central coast would continue their regular business.

Most of the current elephant seal population is composed of this year's pups, who recently matured into weaners. The majority of these have gathered together in oversized weaner pods on just a couple of the local beaches in the Piedras Blancas area instead of being dottted along the coast as in previous years.

An observer might be amazed as the members of the weaner pod at the north end of the Piedras Blancas viewing center seem to be unusually active, feisty and agitated - biting and snapping at anything and everything that's in their vicinity rather than mainly sleeping away their days, conserving energy. Extreme backbends also seem to be the order of the day as many of these maybe not-so-small twirling dervishes are making the most of a pool formed through a combination of high tides and water deposited from a large agricultural drainage pipe.

Click here to see video of weaners in pool.

Another interesting point is the amount of large adult male elephant seals that are still present. One could say that they're there to protect the weaners. But are they ? Scientists believe that the adult males are only interested in mature females. However, my observations of the adult males would seem to point to their protective nature not only towards females but also towards the pups and/or the weaners.

So far, only a handful of the females have returned to the beaches to rest and start their catastrophic molt. Additionally, on some of the small pocket beaches, a few well-fed young males have already hauled out to begin their molting period.

Click here to see more photos.

The Elephant Seal Mom

As soon as the pup is born, bonding takes place between mom and pup by each smelling the other, and in so doing, imprinting each other’s scent, the only sure way to ID one another in the melee of the elephant seal colony. ( The rather helpless newborn is completely dependent on its mom for survival.)

The immediate main mission of the mom for the following 28 days is to PROTECT her pup at all costs. To this end, she likes to keep a clear space around her and her not-too-swiftly moving pup to help in the defense against aggressive seals of either sex. ( To the eager onlooker, it appears as though the moms are continually bitching and then quickly turning to reassure themselves that their pup is OK.)

Click here to see video of bickering females.

If a prospective male suitor comes over to mate with an unready and unwilling mom, she tries to lure this ardent guy away from the vicinity of her pup by wiggling her tail-end and acting as though she wants to mate. Once lured over to her, the would-be-mate finds his advances are not welcome as the come-hither wiggling stops, sand is flung in his face, and he will probably also get some sharp nips from the protective mom before she hurries back to her pup.

Another problem the mom has to guard against is her dependent pup being run over by large males charging frantically across the beach trying to escape being attacked by other large males.

Click here to see video of male charging across crowded beach.

The icy tidal Pacific Ocean water is yet another danger to the newborn as too much cold water will chill the pup to the bone and can even lead to death.

Intruders on the birthing beach that the moms try to keep at bay, include raucous and bold gulls as well as the occasional coyote looking for a quick meal of tasty pup.

The other important side to being an elephant seal mom is to get the pup to suckle. If the hungry pup has problem locating the milk supply on the huge body of the female, the mom will use a fore-flipper to keep the pup from heading up towards her head instead of going down towards her tail end where her teats are.

Sound-wise moms and pups communicate almost constantly, but if a mom wants the pup to be quiet, she will even cover the pup’s head with her mouth.

The female emits distinctly different sounds for different situations. For example: the deep bark is a warning sound whereas a series of high-pitched almost staccato sounds indicate anxiety.

Click here to listen to an anxious female.

Click here to listen to female's warning bark.

For more photos, click here.

Pups...Pups...and More Pups

Since the birthing season is now in full swing, I'm dedicating this posting to the littlest of the elephant seals...the newborn pups.

Once the mom starts her birth contractions, the birth is usually only a few short minutes away, with the pup entering this world either head first or tail-flipper first. As the gulls swoop in to get a good meal by eating up the afterbirth, and thereby keeping the beach clean, mom and her newborn pup bond by getting familiar with each other's scent. ( This is very important, especially on crowded beaches, as moms and pups often get separated in the turmoil of elephant seals constantly moving around for one reason or another. )

The first two weeks are immensely important for the survival of the newborn pups. They have two immediate life-surviving tasks to accomplish. They have to find the location of their food supply, and they have to stay warm. During their first couple of weeks, the 3-4 foot newborn fuzzy black pups are ill-equipped to stay warm in the chilly ocean waters of the Pacific. This means, that until they've built up enough blubber from mom's fat-rich milk, they can actually die from hypothermia if they get caught up in the coastal tide-waters too often. ( Maybe their heat-absorbing black fur helps keep their skinny little bodies warm until the blubber layer is built up. )

Click here to watch the awesome experience of this pup being born.

Click here to see a video of a pup shivering.

Both moms and their newborns are extremely vociferous, and the central California beaches are filled with a cacophony of their sounds throughout the birthing season.

Similar to when a human baby cries, one can only try to hazard a guess as to what is behind the loud high-pitched cries the elephant seal pups send out across the sandy, kelp-fly-filled air-waves. Mostly, they're hungry...and cry out for mom to roll over and give them some great-tasting high-fat milk. But they also cry out because they're cold from the chilly ocean tides, separated from mom, being nipped at by another elephant seal, sounding the alarm at an unknown presence, chasing off intruding gulls...or...any number of other reasons one can think up.

The pups get to enjoy the easy food supply for about 28 days. Then the milk is abruptly turned off, and they left to fend for themselves and are renamed weaners.

Scientists believe that the ratio of male to female pups born is 50-50.
So how can you tell the difference ? Well, apart from asking the pup to roll over, one can take an educated guess by looking at the shape of the head and the fore-flippers. The male's head tends to be rounder, the fore-flippers bigger, and they'll stare you down.

The birthing season, followed by the mating season is probably the busiest elephant seal time on our beaches.

Click here for more photos.

High Tides, Alpha Males, Few Adult Females

Similar to last year, this winter's incoming tides have once again, been extremely high, completely covering many of the beaches coveted by the elephant seals for the birthing season. Unlike this time last year, though, our storms have been of the tropical rain-drenching kind from the south, mixing with some southward bound chilly northern fronts.

Maybe the change in weather pattern is the reason why there are currently fewer pregnant adult female elephant seals on shore this early in the birthing season than in years gone by. As a result, there have so far only been a handful of births.

In contrast, there seem to be many more large adult male elephant seals in the extreme heavy-weight class, who, so far, appear to be much more mellow toward each other than in previous years at this time. For the most part, they've hung up the do-not-disturb signs and have been spending much of their shore-time sleeping instead of engaging in their traditional bloody, dragged-out fights over territory.

For those who like the excitement of elephant seal fights, some sparring sub-adult males can still be spotted tussling away here and there.

The few remaining tan-to-gold colored youngsters are spending their time sleeping, half-heartedly participating in their mock fights, or moving as fast as their small bodies will allow out of the path of the amorous large males.

For more photos, click here.

BIG Adult Male Elephant Seals Starting to Show Up

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Taking a well-deserved nap

As the Fall Haul-Out heads to its close for this year, a smattering of the large adult male elephants seals can already be seen sleeping and snoring on several of the beaches along the central California coast.

So far, the bloody and sometimes protracted fights for territory have not yet begun. This may in part be due to the fact that these huge males are quite exhausted from their almost continual search for food while at sea and need to sleep so they can recoup their massive strength. Another contributory fact might be that there are so few adult males here this early that territory is not yet an issue.

Quite a few pregnant females can also be observed resting on the beaches along with the remaining sparring sub-adult males as well as more than a few left-over weaners and two- and three-year-old youngsters.

The fur of these youngsters, which has changed to a beautiful golden or pale tan color, will be shed during next year's molting season.

Most of the elephant seals look well-fed this year, and their fur lacks the blemishes of last year. Also, the amount of cookie-cutter shark bites seems less than in time gone by.

As the days in December roll by, more and more adult males will be coming ashore and the showdowns for territory will take place more and more frequently until the pregnant females arrive and start to give birth, with the first births coming maybe as early as the middle of December.

To see more photos, click here.

Fall Haul-Out Continues

As the Fall Haul-Out for 2010 continues, different elephant seals keep coming ashore for some R&R while those that have already spent close to a month on land leave in search of food.

After the young male elephant seals have recovered from their trip to the central coast beaches of California, they start their fights for dominance.

However, the female elephant seals of all ages that come ashore at this time of year do so to get some rest trying to keep their distance from the young and actively aggressive young males.

Expectant onlookers can almost always be assured of being witness to the varying shows of aggression provided by the young male elephant seals in their almost continual fights for dominance both on land and in the water.

All too soon, however, these younger elephant seals will be off to sea again looking for more food. Then, in about six weeks, the big male elephant seals will start to come ashore and the battles for temporary territory will begin.

For more photos, click here.

Time for the Yearlings

With only a couple of large male elephant seals still on the beach, the emphasis now is on this year's weaners and two- and three-year olds as they hustle ashore to begin their Fall Haul-Out rituals.

Like the older elephant seals, they joust, albeit with less ferocity, disturb each other for a variety of reasons, sleep, and swim in the shallows.

When the older elephant seals come shore, they usually spend quite a bit of time in deep sleep. The younger ones, however, seem to be more filled with vim and vigor !

To see more photos, click here.

To visit my elephant seal website, click here.

To see elephant seal fight videos on YouTube, click here.

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.

Click here to see more photos.

Click here to visit my elephant seal website.

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.

Click here to see more photos.

Click here to visit my elephant seal website.

Click here to send a free elephant seal e-card.

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.

Click here to see more photos.

At the Bottom of the Heap

This young elephant seal pup has got herself in a precarious position...stuck underneath two bickering females ! ( She does end up wriggling herself safely free, though, while the females continue their difference of opinion.)

For the most part, the gigantic multi-ton male elephant seals are the ones to get blamed for the squishing of the pups on the crowded birthing beaches, but it certainly looks as though the moms can also be held responsible to some extent.

Now through February is the most exciting time as the beaches along the central coast of California will be filled with a cacophony of sounds from all the elephant seals, from the deep-throated roars of the males to the barking of the females to the shrill cries of the newborn pups. This amazingly diverse array of sounds rises to greet the many, often astonished yet excited, multi-national visitors, eager to catch a close-up glimpse of these fascinating mammals in action.

Click here for more photos.