The Northern Elephant Seal, Mirounga angustirostris , is an extraordinary marine mammal. It spends eight to ten months a year in the open ocean, diving 1000 to 5000 feet deep for periods of fifteen minutes to two hours, and migrating thousands of miles, twice a year, to its land based rookery for birthing, breeding, molting and rest. The Piedras Blancas rookery, on Highway 1 seven miles north of San Simeon on the California Central Coast, is home to about 15,000 animals. The area is open for viewing every day of the year and there is no admission fee or reservation required.
If there is something you want to know about elephant seals, or about other marine mammals that inhabit this area of the California coast, please ASK US.
NEW - A beautiful video of The Mating Scene
by Denis and Ina Decker
| School visits or bus tours 805-924-1628 |
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The site is now including guest photographs in our Photo Album Section under E-Seals. We invite photographers interested in being included to click the ASK US link above and request inclusion. The webmaster reserves the rights of selection, sizing, and duration of the show.
As the last of the adult females and then the adult males return to sea in early March, the new pups, deserted by their mothers, are now on their own. These "weaners" are cute, curious and, when the adults are gone, quite active, spending much of their time in the shallow protected regions of the ocean and in occasional freshwater ponds on the beach. They remain in the rookery, fasting like their elders, for approximately two months while they convert much of their fat to muscle and nourishment, losing approximately one-third of their body weight before they go to sea. Beginning in mid-March juveniles and adult females return to molt. Their numbers peak around the first of May with as many as 4000 visible on the beaches at each end of the parking lot. All mammals must grow new skin and sluff off the old. For land mammals such as we, this takes place continuously with our blood nourishing the new skin cells as they grow. For the elephant seals, however, the cost in lost heat to the ocean of having blood circulating under the skin while in 40 degree (Fahrenheit) water is just too great. That cost justifies a second annual migration from feeding grounds to the rookery where that can be done in the balmy air of our coast. The seals are on the beach for the mold about a month. While elephant seal skin is pewter colored when new, it turns to brown or yellow with age. Unlike the breeding season when each mother seal demands some space around her for the security of her pup, during the molting season the seals, solitary at sea, often choose to clump together as close as possible. The sub-adult males start arriving in mid-May and the females and juveniles are mostly gone by mid-June, with the older males tending to arrive for the molt in July. The beach is frequently active in this period with the sparring of the sub-adult males. The adult males are usually quiet and more solitary on the beaches than the younger seals and females. The play fighting of the sub-adults is not for them - they get plenty of that exercise in the birthing and breeding period. These photos of seals on the beach during this period. Moving your cursor over the image will pause the slide show. |
Friends of the Elephant Seal PO Box 490 Cambria, CA 93428 Phone: (805) 924-1628 Fax: (805) 924-1629 |
Office / Visitor Center Plaza del Cavalier 250 San Simeon Ave. Suite 3B San Simeon, Ca 93452 Email: fes@elephantseal.org |
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Last edited March 22, 2009