Elephant seals and snot…

Posted: April 9, 2006 at 4:51 pm by John

Each year at this time, the beaches just north of San Simeon at Piedras Blancas are teaming with young male and female Elephant Seal pups. The come ashore by the thousands to molt. The youngest ones are learning to swim in the protected shallow waters.

Jeff and Matthew learned from a helpful Friend of the Elephant Seals that the full grown males weight around 5000 pounds and migrate along a 5000 mile route each year. Oh, and they will dive about 5000 feet down to feed. (They fast during the time while they are on the beach.)

Truly a sight to be seen…from upwind. At first glance, these pups definitely have the awwwww factor going for them. But closer inspection reveals snotty noses and belch-like sounds. Heh, we even caught one adventurous pup picking his nose 🙂

6 Comments for Elephant seals and snot…

JamesF

“Seal Digs For Gold”

Sounds like 5000 is the magic number. 5000 lbs, 5000 miles, diving 5000 feet. Is that really right? They go a mile under water? That’s impressive.

BullBunky

Oh that’s an even better title. Damn. Thanks! I’ll have you write my material 🙂

And yes, that’s what the nice Friend of the Elephant Seal told us. It seemed a bit unbelievable then too. But this catchy 5000 thing makes it hard to forget.

Matthew J. Wilson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_seal

wikipedia seems to disagree with our fine-feathered friend… wait, i mean friend of the elephant seals. it claims that they will dive 300-600 meters (~900-1800 feet) for food. that’s a long way from 5,000 feet. although, it also says that they can hold their breath for up to 80 minutes… almost double of what she told us.

so who knows. 🙂

BullBunky

Well, you know, that would make a LOT more sense. Even holding their breath for 80 min seems short to get down and back that far!

BullBunky

OK, well I looked into our Friends of the Elephant Seal. Their website actually says that they can dive deeper than 500 feet, but that typical dives are 1000-2000 feet.

Matthias

John, but that’s messes up the whole magic 5000 number…