Elephant Seals (Day 2)

The end of our drive along the coast through Big Sur had us arriving at Piedras Blancas to see the elephant seals. These amazing animals were hunted to near-extinction for their oil-rich blubber but they are now protected and have made a remarkable comeback. In fact, during the 1880's, they were thought to be extinct, but a small group of 20-100 had survived that bred on Guadalupe Island off of Baja California. (All of my information is from the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce's site.)

When we visited, the moms had already given birth and left their weaned pups. The weaned pups are called "weaners" and they had formed what is known as "weaner pods."

As these pups lay in groups together, they would push and shove each other for the best sleeping position. The disturbed seals would then scream and sometimes give a little nip at the ones who were disturbing their rest.

As I mentioned, most of the elephant seals we saw were the weaned pups. However, we did see about 8 adult males, though some were immature males. As you can see from this photo of a sign, the males and females are "sexually dimorphic", that is the males are much larger than the females. The male has a chest shield, sharp teeth, and a large proboscis while the female looks much different.

Here's one of the males we saw. You can especially see his chest shield and large proboscis.

These two males were the most watched seals on the beach. I believe these are a pair of "sub-adult males" who are practicing sparring which is a skill they will need when they are old enough to mate. You can tell they are young, I think, because they don't have the chest shield and they don't have the enlarged proboscis which comes with puberty at around 4 years of age.

I had to share this photo of a shedding elephant seal. (gross!?) I think this was the only seal we saw shedding, and we thought she really stood out!

We were also suprised to see a lot of rabbits hopping around near the beach! I hope you enjoyed this "lesson" on elephant seals! This is another reason I blog... I learned more about elephant seals while writing this post then I did while visiting them! Enjoy!