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Live View | Friends of the Elephant Seal

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Don't Mess With A HUGE Elephant Seal | Super Giant Animals | BBC

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Friends of the Elephant Seal: About the Seals

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Friends of the Elephant Seal: About the Seals

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Northern elephant seals are well named because adult males have large noses that resemble an elephant's trunk. Males begin developing this enlarged nose, or proboscis, when they reach puberty at about five years, and it is fully developed by eight to nine years. Adult males may grow to 14-16 feet (4-5 m) in length and weigh up to 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg). The females are much smaller at 9-12 feet (2.5-4 m) in length and 900-1,800 pounds (400-800 kg). The northern elephant seal is the second largest seal in the world, after the southern elephant seal. The elephant seal is in the phocid, or true seal, family. It lacks external ear flaps and moves on land by flopping on its belly. The elephant seal has a broad, round face with very large eyes. Pups are 3 to 4 feet (1 m) long at birth and weigh about 70 pounds (32 kg). They are born with a black coat which is molted, or shed, at about the time of weaning (28 days), revealing a sleek, silver-gray coat. Within a year, the coat will turn silvery brown.

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About The Seals | Friends of the Elephant Seal

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Northern elephant seals are well named because adult males have large noses that resemble an elephant's trunk. Males begin developing this enlarged nose, or proboscis, when they reach puberty at about five years, and it is fully developed by eight to nine years.

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Elephant Seal Vocalizations- A Virtual Field Trip

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Elephant Seals through the Year Animation

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Elephant Seals through the Year Animation

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Species Directory

What We Do

Conservation & Management

NOAA Fisheries is committed to protecting northern elephant seals. Targeted management actions taken to protect these seals include:

Consulting with federal agencies to ensure proposed actions are unlikely to harm elephant seals due to the effects of entanglement in fishing gear or other stressors.

Minimizing harassment and illegal feeding.

Overseeing marine mammal health and stranding response.

Educating the public about northern elephant seals and the threats they face.

Learn more about our conservation efforts

Science

Our research projects have discovered new aspects of northern elephant seal biology, behavior, and ecology and have helped us better understand the challenges that all elephant seals face. Our work includes:

Population assessments.

Vital rates (survival and reproduction).

Foraging ecology.

Diet studies.

Health and condition.

Disease and contaminants.

Learn more about our research

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Featured News

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The northern elephant seal is the largest of the "true" seals in the Northern Hemisphere. Adult males use their large, inflatable noses during the winter breeding season to resonate sound when vocally threatening each other. The largest colonies of northern elephant seals are found off southern California in the Channel Islands.

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The Difference Between Seals and Sea Lions

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The Difference Between Seals and Sea Lions

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Seals and sea lions, along with walruses, belong to a group of marine mammals called "pinnipeds." Pinniped means fin or flipper-footed in Latin. These animals spend the majority of their time in the ocean, but come on shore for long periods of time. Although seals and sea lions have similarities, they also have several distinct characteristics and adaptations that distinguish them from one another.

What Are the Differences Between Seals and Sea Lions?

Seals

"True" seals, also known as "earless" seals or simply "seals," belong to a group of pinnipeds that have ear holes, but lack an external ear flap. This includes species such as the harbor seal, endangered Hawaiian monk seal, and harp seal.

Seals typically have a smaller body size compared to sea lions. But some, the Northern elephant seal and hooded seal, can be larger.

On land, seals use their bellies to move around because they have small front flippers that are thinly webbed with a claw on each small toe. In the water, seals swim easily, moving their rear flippers back and forth, similar to how a fish uses its caudal fin (tail) to propel itself through the water.

In general, seals tend to be quiet, and vocalize through noises such as soft grunts, growls, or hisses. Many are less social than sea lion species, especially in the water, but seals can be found on land together to avoid predators, rest, mate, and nurse their pups.

A Hawaiian monk seal rests on the beach in the French Frigate Shoals. Credit: Mark Sullivan

Sea Lions

Sea lions, such as the California sea lion and Steller sea lion, belong to a group of pinnipeds that have external ear flaps. This group also includes fur seals like the threatened Guadalupe fur seal.

On land, they use their large, elongated front flippers and rear flippers rotated underneath their bodies to "walk." In the water, sea lions propel themselves by paddling their front flippers and use their rear flippers to help steer, like a boat's rudder.

Sea lions can be noisy, and recognized by their loud and distinct "bark." They commonly congregate in large groups called "herds" or "rafts." They can be seen hauled out together on offshore rocks, sandy beaches, and sometimes human-made structures such as jetties and piers.

California sea lions hauled out on a beach. Credit: NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center/Tony Orr

All seals and sea lions are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and some are also listed under the Endangered Species Act. It is important to view these wild animals from a safe and respectful distance for their safety-and yours. If you see a sick or injured seal or sea lion, please call your nearest marine mammal rescue organization .

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Seals and sea lions, along with walruses, belong to a group of marine mammals called "pinnipeds." Pinniped means fin or flipper-footed in Latin. These animals spend the majority of their time in the ocean, but come on shore for long periods of time.

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Scientific name: Mirounga angustirostris
Elephant seals are the largest seals on earth. Males grow to over 13 feet long and weigh up to 4,500 pounds. Females are slightly smaller, measuring up to 10 feet in length and weighing in at 1,500 pounds.

Elephant seals are mammals, meaning that they are warm-blooded, breathe air using lungs, have fur to stay warm, give birth to live young, and nurse their young using milk. Elephant seals also have thick blubber to keep them warm during cold-water migrations.

Feeding

Elephant seals eat rays, skates, fish, squid, and sharks that live near the bottom of the ocean.

Elephant seals will dive to depths of 2,500 m in search of their prey.

Elephant seals spend 90% of their lives underwater looking for food.

Breeding and Raising Young
Breeding and Development

During these battles, they inflate their trunk-like noses, for which they are named, to make "clapthreats", or drum-like sounds that can be heard from over a mile away ( www.farallones.org). Click here to listen to the vocalizations of two male elephant seals: http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/523/files/twomales.wav

By late December, females begin to arrive onshore. Approximately 3-6 days after arriving, females give birth onshore to pups that were conceived during the previous mating season (1 year before). They have a delayed gestation period of seven months since the pups wouldn't survive if there were born at sea.

Pups will nurse for 25-28 days, gaining weight at a very rapid rate. Pups will grow from 75 pounds at birth to 250-350 pounds in less than a month ( www.parks.ca.gov).

Pups are so voraciously hungry at birth that they make loud "bleating" noises. During the nursing period, females aggressively defend their pups, also using loud vocalizations. Click here to listen to the vocalizations of a female and her pup: http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/523/files/mom-pup.wav

At the end of the nursing period the pups are abruptly weaned and left alone on beaches.

The following video footage shows the importance of the mother elephant seal's trip to the open ocean for foraging in order to meet the energy requirements necessary for nursing her young pup.

Development
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMC0yif6Wos&list=UU4GnRH6bvb0tZSUvoy3vI_A

Weaned pups, called "weaners" are left on beaches after adult males and females leave to forage. Weaners aren't born with the ability to swim or hunt, so they are very clumsy and curious during their first trips out to sea. After a lot of practice close to shore they begin venturing northward to feed off the coast of Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska ( www.parks.ca.gov).

Like all mammals, elephant seals molt their skin and fur. Unlike most mammals, though, they molt all their skin and fur all at once, called a "catastrophic molt". Weaners will molt their skin and fur before northward migrations in April-May. Females return to shore and also molt between April-May, while males return to shore to molt from May-August ( www.parks.ca.gov).

The video below, which features footage from the TOPP project, shows how scientists carefully monitor the elephant seals' breeding and molting behaviors to know when the optimal time is for placing a satellite tag on the animal.

Adaptations

Oxygen is stored in blood, and then transported throughout the body to oxygenate the body's tissues. Elephant seals have twice the blood volume and more oxygen storing molecules (hemoglobin, myoglobin) in their blood and muscles than land mammals of their size. This allows them to go longer without breathing (up to 2 hours!), enabling them to dive and swim to deep depths. (www.elephantseal.org)

Elephant seals also have a special region in their circulatory system that stores oxygen-poor blood while diving. (www.elephantseal.org)

The seal's heart rate slows while diving to reduce blood flow to the body. This process is called bradycardia.

Blood is diverted away from the elephant seal's skin and other peripheral tissues and towards their core organs such as the heart, lungs, and brain. Prioritizing how blood oxygen is used in the body and limiting blood flow to some tissues prolongs how long oxygen in the blood lasts without being replenished by breathing. (www.elephantseal.org)

Warm blood flowing out of the core of the seal's body and towards it's flippers dumps heat to cool blood returning from the flippers to the core of the body. This ensures that valuable heat isn't lost while blood is in the seal's flippers. This process is called counter-current heat exchange, and is used by other animals such as tunas, turtles, and sharks to conserve heat in the core of the body.

Source: http://nmlc.org/2011/07/sea-turtles-part-3-leatherbacks-loggerheads-and-...

Thick blubber keeps elephant seals warm while diving and travelling through cold water. (www.elephantseal.org)

Seals are neutrally buoyant, which means that their body density is equal to the density of seawater. This means that the seal neither sinks nor rises in the water column. This enables seals to use gliding techniques while swimming to conserve energy. (www.elephantseal.org)

Female elephant seals are adapted to going without nourishment for 1-3 months while nursing pups. They accumulate blubber on their feeding migrations to sustain themselves and their pups during the nursing period. (www.elephantseal.org)

The seals have a torpedo shape for efficient movement through the water (www.antarctica.gov.au)

Elephant seals have compliant chest walls that allow their lungs to completely collapse under pressure while deep diving, and then re-inflate when the seal returns to the surface.

Conservation

Elephant seals were previously hunted for the oil in their blubber, and in some cases for their food and skin. It is thought that over 250,000 individuals were hunted in the 1800s.

Elephant seal populations reached near extinction by the end of the 19th century, but have since recovered following a ban on hunting.

The elephant seal now occupies most of it's original range.

Currently, elephant seals are protected in the U.S. by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, and are not of particular conservation concern.

Elephant seals return to the same beaches year after year for breeding and molting.

While onshore, elephant seals have the potential to interact with humans.

Some breeding beaches are protected;by law to prevent negative impacts to elephant seals while onshore.Some current threats to elephant seals include entanglement with marine debris, collision with boats, and competition with the fishing industry for prey.

Elephant seals are also threatened by human activities common to all species, including pollution, habitat degradation, and climate change.

Tagging and Research

Elephant seals are an ideal organism for using electronic tags. They are highly pelagic and have a proven capability for carrying the electronic tags that can acquire data on the ocean environment.

Because of the animal's size, they are able to wear large instruments with minimal impact on the animal's behavior.

The type of tag that elephant seals wear is called a Satellite Relay Data Logger (SRDL)

These tags are able to compress data so that more information can be transmitted through the Argos satellite.

These tags can record salinity, temperature and depth.

The elephant seal tagging efforts to date have provided a detailed understanding of their movement patterns, unparalleled among open-ocean species. By studying the movement patterns of the elephant seals with ocean environmental data, new insights of the physical and biological factors driving the migration of can be attained.

The following video, Into the Deep with Elephant Seals, explains the incredible comeback from near extinction that elephant seals have made, teaches about the unique adaptations these ocean Olympians have for their habitat, and describes how tracking technology has led to a deeper understanding of their behaviors.

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Scientific name: Mirounga angustirostris Elephant seals are the largest seals on earth. Males grow to over 13 feet long and weigh up to 4,500 pounds. Females are slightly smaller, measuring up to 10 feet in length and weighing in at 1,500 pounds.

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Free printable elephant seal coloring page and a colored elephant seal picture to use for various animal-themed crafts and learning activities.

1
Open any of the printable files above by clicking the image or the link below the image. You will need a PDF reader to view these files.

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Print out the file on A4 or Letter size paper.

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Use the black & white printable as a coloring page.

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Use the colored elephant seal for flash cards, crafts and other animal-themed learning activities.

These printables are for personal and non-commercial use only. Do not republish, upload, or alter the PDF files.

To feature or share these printables, please provide a link to the webpage containing the PDF.

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Elephant Seal | Free Printable Templates & Coloring Pages | FirstPalette.com

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Free printable elephant seal coloring page and a colored elephant seal picture to use for various animal-themed crafts and learning activities. 1 Open any of the printable files above by clicking the image or the link below the image. You will need a PDF reader to view these files.

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Monterey Bay Aquarium: Meet the Northern elephant seal

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Monterey Bay Aquarium: Meet the Northern elephant seal

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Northern elephant seal | Animals | Monterey Bay Aquarium

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The elephant seal gets its name from its enormous size and the male's inflated nose, which resembles a shortened elephant trunk.