Continuing Fall Haul-Out

As the Fall Haul-Out continues, seaweed seems to be a huge favorite amongst the seafaring youngsters. Time and again, one can see young elephant seals twirling, shaking, and swallowing colorful pieces of different kinds of seaweed. To what end, you might ask ? Maybe the energetic youngsters are consuming their nutritional veggies ?

Energetic young males on high alert in the shallow bay waters, often keep pace with people walking along the bluffs....probably trying to determine if these people are a threat/challenge to them. Once they decide that these curious land-mammals are not intent on engaging them, the youngsters return to their own boisterous activities.

A few more mature young females can now also be spotted catching some R&R amongst the pale tan-colored younger elephant seals on the beaches.

Soon the eager-to-engage-in-dominance-fights older young males will also be showing up for their turn at the Fall Haul-Out at Elephant Seal Land on the central coast of California.

Click here for more photos.

Versatile Fore-Flipper Action

When I first started reseaching the central coast elephant seals, I was told that they hardly use their fore-flippers at all. However, having observed, photographed and videotaped them for a few years, I find I have to disagree.

These human-like 'hands' are constantly in use both on shore and in the water. Some of their land uses include, the obvious scratching of various parts of their body...batting away an unwanted intruder....using the long nails as a sharp retaliatory weapon...clasping an antagonistic eseal in a hugging motion....helping haul the ungainly-on-land body across rocks and sand.

Then there's the water. Recently, I have been fortunate enough to witness and videotape how they use their fore-flippers in a rather human-like way as they bottle and twirl around in the coastal bays.

Bottling is where they seem to be floating vertically in the water but are actually arching their upper torso upright and backwards. They hold this position by moving their fore-flippers in a circular motion much as synchronized swimmers would do with their arms and hands to stay upright.

What is the purpose of bottling ? This arching of the upper torso in the water, which seems to only be carried out by male elephant seals, obviously helps them quickly discern who's approaching both above them on the beaches and the bluffs as well as in the water. Bottling seems to be the action of choice when the males of all ages first come to the coastal waters. After that it seems to be more of a sporadic event. Apart from finding out who their immediate compadres and competition are, maybe they're also preparing and strengthening their fore-flippers for the switchover to land movement. After all, for the huge adult males, hauling a couple of tons of blubber across land at the high speed of 10+ m.p.h. is no mean feat !

Watch this video as they use their fore-flippers in an almost human or dophin-like way in their aquatic maneuvers.

Click here for photos showing fore-flipper versatility.

Elephant Seal Seasons at Piedras Blancas, CA

To find out when which elephant seals are at the Piedras Blancas colony on the central coast of California, you should take a look at my newly released ebook at Smashwords.com. The straight-forward descriptions provide ample information, and the accompanying high quality color photos of these fascinating marine mammals complete the picture.

Click here for direct link.

You can also watch this promo video on my YouTube Channel, Elephant Seal Action Videos. Click here to find out more about this book.

Keep an eye out for hardcopies that will soon be available on Amazon.com.

Hope you find this informative.

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.

Dominance Fighting Is In

When the large male elephant seals started coming ashore in July, many were looking rather on the skinny side. Amazingly, and I say amazingly because scientists believe that elephant seals do NOT eat while they're visiting the beaches on the central coast of California, these giant marine mammals have made quite a noticeable weight gain ! They're now looking like you would expect them to, full of blubber and acting quite feisty once again.

With resting no longer being the most important activity some of the days, these heavy- weights are spending quite a bit of shore-time fighting whoever will accept the proffered challenges.

Throughout their lives, male elephant seals spend a good portion of their non-foraging time in determining who is stronger and more dominant by engaging in skirmishes with plenty of other elephant seals both in the shallows and on the beach.

Despite the obvious signs of mounting testosterone which is giving rise to quite a few fiercely combative skirmishes, many fights at this time of year are still quite lacksadaisical. Presently, the more serious fights are taking place in the shallows, while the disagreements on land usually arise when a male wants to change his position or location.

Click here to see current photos from Elephant Seal Land.

Some males do their best to avoid fighting altogether unless really pushed to the limit while others are constantly on the lookout for a good bruisin'. When observing these fights, it looks as though some males almost appear to be laughing as they face their opponents while others stare fiercely aggressively as they go on the attack. Still others look as though they're tolerating the inevitable. Interestingly enough, you can even witness occasional actual flashes of anger both in the behavior and in the eyes of some of these huge marine mammals as they go about deciding dominance.

The adult male elephant seals, however, usually only draw significant blood in the territorial fights that take place in December of each year. Fierce as those fights often are though, they do not fight to the death. Instead they either end with one of the combatants voluntarily backing away or being chased away by the victor.

Elephant seals have established their rituals for fighting which they follow pretty much every time there's a challenge. Click here to learn about the different steps.

Click here to see photos of male elephant seal aggression.

Click here to watch video of large male elephant seals battling in the shallows.

Click here to watch video of large males doing battle on the beach.

Molting and Sparring Adult Male Elephant Seals

The hugely popular giant seafaring mammals, the adult male elephant seals, are once again coming to the local beaches on the central coast of California. Reaching 15 or so feet in length and weighing in the neighborhood of 3+ tons, they are convening here mainly to rest and molt, with the inevitable bouts of dominance sparring interrupting their noisy snores and snorts.

Click here to see video of these molting giants.

However, these giants of the sea do not seem as well-fed this year as the recently departed adult females. For many, their skin seems too big and wrinkled instead of being plumped out by several inches of insulating blubber. Since many appear to be on the skinnier side, they'll have to broaden their foraging hunt after completing their molting in order to be at full strength and weight for the intense fights for the rights to a piece of beach territory in December.

In contrast, some of the well-fed younger adult males can be seen eagerly sparring on land or in the water amongst these currently rather lethargic heavy-weight leviathans.

Here and there, an early-arrived yearling can already be spotted snoozing on the sandy beaches.

Click here to see plenty of photos of large males doing what they do best.