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.

Pups Becoming Weaners

All but the last few exhausted mommy elephant seals have left to replenish their rapid weight loss which took place during their month-long shore sojurn. Giving birth and suckling their pups without possibility of leaving land for about 28 days to get some sustenance caused them to lose about 1/3 of the body weight they had when they first came ashore this winter.

The pups, most of whom are more than chubby this year, have been renamed weaners, weaned from suckling, and their only adult protection now is from some of the remaining large males.

Many of these weaners hang out in varying-sized groups known as weaner-pods. Whether they do so for safety in numbers, for comfort from physical closeness to others, for warmth, for the social aspect or what, the scientists are not sure. One thing is sure, though, their interactions with one another are often hilarious to watch.

Over the next month or so, the black/brown pup fur will be exchanged for the eye-catching silver gray fur that's specific for the weaners during their first year. Like all sea-going creatures, their new backside fur is darker than their belly fur, making them less visible to their predators in the ocean.

During their first month as weaners, they will start exploring the shallow tide-pools and/or creeks honing their vital foraging, swimming and diving skills. In so doing, they often get caught up in the ocean currents and land up, intentionally or otherwise, at a different beach, which I call this beach-hopping.

My next posting will deal with the adventures of maturing weaner.

Click here for more photos.

Mating Season

Even though there are still quite a few young pups sticking close to their protective moms, more and more females are coming into heat as their pups pass the three-week-old mark.

Many of these females are still displaying feisty behavior struggling to free themselves from ardent males by twisting and turning and even placing some good nips on the male's sensitive trunks or ripping at the cornified chest shields. ( The females seem to rule the roost ! )

Click here to see video of mating.

As this year's suckling phase nears its end, thinner than usual females seem impatient to quickly leave their fast maturing pups and head back out to sea to find some much needed nourishment to replenish their weight loss.

However, the male elephant seals, and there are an unsual amount of them this year, are insisting on trying to mate with as many of these obviously exhausted females before the 'gals' leave on their much-needed rejuvenation trip.

( Maybe because the weather has been unusally sunny and warm and the traditional foggy mornings and evenings absent, many of the elephant seals seem more drained than in other years.)

The BIG alpha males, the ones that won the hotly-contested territorial fights, are still jealously guarding their harems of females that are still ashore. Many of these large beachmaster males have intensified their determined dashing up and down the beaches over the past couple of weeks, as more and more uninvited amorous suitors keep trying to sneak ashore after playing the patient alligator in the shallow coastal water. Interestingly, the smarter alphas on the smaller beaches, can be seen exchanging the exhausting land patrol for the much easier and more efficient swim patrol in the shallow waters when the tidal water is high enough. Rocks that protrude above the surface of the shallow water are used to hide behind both by the protector and the intruders.

An amorous intruder might try to sneak quietly undetected by the alpha male up to a group of females, making himself as flat and unobstrusive as possible. To no avail. The females will soon make loud deep barking sounds to alert their protector, the big alpha male. This heavy-weight of all heavy-weights will then come rushing over to convince the uninvited suitor to remove himself. Sometimes, the suitor dashes off to another beach via the sea, or he'll just move off a little ways and wait for the opportunity to try again.

Some would-be suitors are not so subtle and attempt to physically challenge the resident head-honchos. This challenge usually ends very quickly with the wishful mater-to-be being chased off the beach with little or no physical contact.

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.

Aggressive and Domineering Alpha Males in Action

Although off to a sleepy start earlier this season, the large adult males are now competing with the sub-adult males as to who can be more aggressive as the birthing season is getting into full swing.

Usually the large males wait for the females to enter into heat before attempting to mate. ( Three weeks after the pup is born, females are in heat for about a week. ) This year, however, it seems to be more about dominance, as males of all ages are attempting to take possession of any female or youngster on shore or in the shallows. This act of aggression/dominance is also happening to females who have just given birth.

Even though more females have come ashore, their numbers seem currently to be less than in years prior, whereas the males appear to be more than plentiful.

So far, the pups look robust and healthy, and their moms are doing a great job of fiercely protecting them from other elephant seals as well as the cold waters of the Pacific.

Click here for more photos.

Click here to check out my YouTube Elephant Seal Video Channel.