Northern elephant seals are found in the North Pacific, along the coast of North America, from Baja California, Mexico to the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands. During the breeding...
Birthing and breeding season takes place December through March. Adult male seals (bulls) and large sub-adult male seals begin to arrive in late November, with most arriving in December....
Shortly before a female leaves the rookery after birthing and nursing her pup, she will mate several times and become pregnant. She leaves the rookery for two to three months, returning in...
Except for nursing pups, all of the seals in the rookery are fasting – no food and no water for their entire stay. They survive by metabolizing their blubber, providing energy,...
A recent study produced some results and a presentation that is very interesting. Data on the tracking of 321 adult female seals were used to produce a “chorus” that captured some...
Elephant seals have a thick layer of blubber that keeps them warm in the deep, cold sea. Blubber is fatty tissue found under the skin in all pinnipeds. Blubber is different from other...
Elephant seals forage at great depth where it is very dark, even during the day. While there is no evidence of any echolocation ability, foraging appears to depend upon vision and...
Seals control internal temperatures and reduce heat loss by a mechanism called countercurrent heat-exchange. As an example, the arteries carrying warm blood to the hind flippers...
Oxygen is used by all mammals to support metabolism and is carried in three ways - as a component of air in the lungs, attached to hemoglobin in the red blood cells, or attached to...
As with most wild animals, an elephant seal’s life is fraught with danger. As visitors to the rookery can see during the birthing season, a number of seal pups do not survive. High seas...
Beginning in late March and extending into September, each of the seals, with the exception of the weaned pups of that year, will return to the rookery for a month to grow new skin and...
Like all seals, elephant seals undergo a set of physical changes when they dive – called the dive response. The dive response includes a significant drop in heart rate, constriction of...
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