Elephant Seals on the Pocket Beaches

Females Resting Onshore               Males Challenging in a Bay 

At this time of year, when both the females and males of all ages excluding the adult males come ashore to experience their catastrophic molt, they often choose separate pocket beaches. Maybe they do so because the females don't want to be mounted all the time by young males....and maybe because the males are more intent on asserting their strength, both mental and physical, over each other.

Click here to see photos of both groups.

Although both sexes tend to sleep quite a bit, therein ends the likeness. The once-again pregnant females crowd onto the small beaches and spend much of their time squabbling about one thing or another as they wait not so patiently for the time when they'll leave the central California shores to feed themselves and their growing fetus. How they decide when to leave again is not known. Maybe their hunger pangs get too strong, or maybe they somehow know that their favorite meals are out and about. One thing that is obvious, is that the females seem to prefer spending their time ashore, often on beds of cooling kelp rather than in the chilly Pacific Ocean.

Click here to see video of some of the females.

The males, on the other hand, tend to occupy their coastal-time by constantly challenging other males. These challenges take place both in the shallows as well as on land. From the day they're born, male elephant seals almost constantly challenge one another...presumably for supremacy.

Click here to see video of some males relaxing in a bay.

These groups will soon be on their way in search of food, and won't return to these shores until early fall. The next group to come ashore starting in late June will be the adult males.

Mainly Weaners

As March draws to a close, the pups which were born this birthing season have since been renamed weaners. ( I don't know who came up with this 'ingenious' terminology at some point in time.) The pups are weaned abruptly from their moms after feeding almost non-stop for about 4 weeks and gaining anywhere from a couple of hundred pounds to even as much as 7 times their original birth weight in this relatively short nursing period. The moms are hungry and eager to get back out to sea to replenish their lost body weight, which means that the newly weaned pups AKA weaners are pretty much left to fend for themselves. However, a few young adult males can still be seen hanging around the beaches maybe to protect these youngsters from immediate harm. After all, coyotes do sometimes traverse the beaches in search of food !

The weaners will remain on the beaches for about another month or so living off the fat-rich milk they ingested from their moms. During this time, they'll practice the art of swimming and diving in protected tide-pools or creeks to build up their muscle strength. Also, the black/brown pup fur will finish shedding and reveal the sleek new silver-gray fur associated with weaners.

Weaners are very chummy and like to talk and physically interact with one another. The males are already starting their practice fights and setting up supremacy ladders. The females are quieter...they don't practice fight like the males. Instead, they do a lot of stretching, fending off male weaners, and sleeping. Weaners do need to sleep a lot in order to preserve their body fat for as long as possible. Sometimes, you can even see weaners testing out the edibility of dry kelp, sticks or other objects lying on the beaches.

Click here to watch a video of weaners enjoying early morning time in a creek.

Eventually, the weaners will decide it's time to start seriously looking for food and start beach-hopping in search of nourishment. During this time, they'll also hone their life-necessary fishing skills. Most weaners will head northward following the trails of the adult elephant seals. Then they'll return again to the vicinity of their birthing beach in the late summer/early fall in a period called the Fall Haul-Out when they'll rest, practice fight, and generally socialize for about a month.

Click here to see more photos of these captivating weaners.

Fall Haul-Out Picking up Speed

As we enter the second week of September, more newcomers of varying ages are starting to haul ashore to enjoy their turn on our beaches.

Click here to see more photos of our current visitors.

This fall, a good many of these elephant seals also seem to be unusually generous in 'decorating' our shallows and sandy beaches with their own brand of often brightly-colored fertilizer.

Engaging in struggling with seaweed at this time of year is also a favorite past-time of many young males. Experts have often wondered if elephant seals actually swallow the seaweed/kelp that they toss around. From my observations, it would seem as though they do. The process is often a long and laborious one as the elephant seals have no means to hold the long strands as they strive to break off a bite-size piece. Instead, they have to shake/toss the seaweed till a small piece is broken off. Then the broken off piece has to be carefully maneuvered into just the right position in the mouth so it can slide down the throat without causing the elephant seal to choke on it. To successfully facilitate this rather difficult process, the elephant seal often drinks large amounts of seawater to help in the actual swallowing.

Why elephant seals choose to eat seaweed/kelp is not clear. Maybe they do so for the same reason dogs eat grass...to aid in digestion.

Click here to watch video of young males struggling to swallow some seaweed. ( Some of the video has been slowed down to better show the action. )

As we proceed further into the Fall Haul-Out, more and more elephant seals will come ashore to get some R&R before heading out once again to feed before the birthing/mating season that will start sometime in December.