The elephant seals spend most of the year at sea but, always come to the coast at this time of the year to give birth to the small elephant-seal-babys and to conceive new ones. There are currently hanging around 440 elephant-seal-bulls together with 1446 elephant-seal-cows and their 642 elephant-seal-babys and 16 elephant-seal-teenager at Año Nuevo State Park.
440 elephant-seal-bulls
1446 elephant-seal-cows
642 elephant-seal-babys
16 elephant-seal-teenager
Of course this is a must see! To protect the elephant seals (and of course yourself) you can only go on a guided tour into the State Park.
But Larry tells us enthusiastically everything about these biggest seals in the world. So we enjoy it even more than exploring on our own.
A bull weighs up to 2 1/2 tons. His wives (yes, this rascal has more than one) “only” 600 kilogramm.
We learn that a grown bull weighs about 2 1/2 tons (!) and still manages to “run” 23 meters in only 3 seconds. On land. Therefore you should stay in the group and do not get too close to the animals.
We’re going around a curve – and there’s someone in a puddle next to the road! An elephant seal! It is much too hot for him today, so he is wallowing in the cool wet and therefore a chilled model in my picture.
And, oh, so cute! There is another sweet fellow!
Cute! But we are not allowed to get any closer.
As this specimen is lying in the in the middle of our hiking path we need to do a detour for not to interfere it.
Then we approach the beach. Here Dann erreichen wir den Strand. Here they are all gathered …
If the elephant seals are they will throw themselves with cool sand. And those in my opinion smarter ones simply put themselves in a water hole
Since all of them are feeling hot, they constantly throw themselves with cool sand – which the baby does not appreciate so much. But it becomes reconciled when it is nursed by Mami:
Apropos: milk produced by elephant seals is remarcably high in milkfat: 55 % – For comparison cow’s milk: 4.2%! Thus, the small ones will increase within a month from 35 to 140 kilograms! And the mother? She‘s giving birth and nursing the baby without eating! So she loses in these weeks 1/3 of her body weight!
Ooooh, here lies the whole family…
And animal lover Matthias is happy!
Unfortunately, about 70% of the babies will not reach the age of adults – because sharks are hungry too… But we don’t want to think about that today. Because until the end of February, they will chill in peace on the beach 🙂
