Natural Perspectives: Our visit to Cambria’s elephant seals

This past weekend, Vic and I witnessed an astonishing wildlife phenomenon. I never expected to see this in real life, only on television. But anyone who knows where and when to go can have the same fabulous encounter. Here’s what we did:

During the Presidents’ Day weekend, Vic and I went to Cambria with our son Scott and his family to observe the elephant seal breeding colony there. Vic and I had visited this site years ago and saw a half dozen animals sleeping on the beach.

I was totally unprepared for the sight and sound of 600 or more elephant seals with sparring males, barking females and nursing pups.

With their enormous size and elongated noses that resemble the trunk of an elephant, adult northern elephant seals are intimidating animals. They are 14- to 16-feet long and weigh between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds. When they rise up on their front flippers to challenge other males, they can raise their snouts seven feet into the air to challenge other males — even while lying on the sand!

Adult females are petite in comparison, measuring 9- to 12-feet long and weighing between 900 and 1,800 pounds.

On Saturday, we all attended a seminar on elephant seals put on by the Friends of the Elephant Seal at their headquarters in San Simeon. Donovan Marley, one of the docents, was the main speaker.

Northern elephant seals were nearly wiped out during the 19th century when whalers found their island breeding colonies along the Pacific coast, and clubbed them to death for their blubber.

Around 1900, a relic population of about 100 individuals was found breeding on the island of Guadalupe far off the coast of Baja. That population was protected, and it has since expanded to about 135,000 individuals.

Out of that number, 17,000 breed at the Piedras Blancas colony north of Cambria. The colony is named for the lighthouse a mile to the north, which, in turn, is named for the white rocks just offshore.

Historically, elephant seals bred only on islands because of mainland predators such as wolves and grizzlies. Their helpless pups would not have been safe from such predators. But humans wiped out the wolves and grizzlies in California long ago.

When 19 elephant seals hauled at Piedras Blancas in 1990, they found a safe haven. The wide beach there allows room for the rookery, and the kelp beds help keep away orcas and sharks as the young pups learn to swim. By 1993, the population swelled to 1,000 seals.

Although the colony now numbers 17,000, they are never all there at the same time. In mid-January, females and their pups, along with dominant and subadult males, swell the population to about 3,000.

In early May, females and juveniles haul out onto the beach for what is called a catastrophic molt. There may be as many as 5,000 female and juvenile seals on the beach in May during this molting period. Subadult males and the few dominant males haul out in July, but there are only about 300 seals present then.

Elephant seals shed their fur and outer layer of skin all at once. At this time, they look sick and diseased as their skin peels off in large patches, but a new layer of skin lies underneath. This catastrophic molt is just a normal part of their life.

Females nurse their pups for only 27 to 29 days, staying on the beach and not eating the entire time. Near the end of the nursing period, the females mate up to 13 times a day with three or four of the dominant males. Then they swim out to sea, leaving their pups behind. Elephant seals lead solitary lives while at sea.

Pups weigh about 60 to 80 pounds when born and have curly black fur. After they are weaned at about 250 to 350 pounds, the pups remain behind in colonies of “weaner pups.” They must teach themselves how to swim and to catch the fish, squid and small sharks that make up the bulk of their diet.

After their own mother has left, some of the male pups will attempt to nurse on other females. They sidle up to a sleeping female and nuzzle her as her own pup would. She will often unsuspectingly roll over to allow the weaner pup access to one of her two nipples. Such pups have been dubbed “double-mother-sucklers.”

One pup was documented as successfully nursing on 23 separate females. These double-mother-suckler pups can grow to enormous sizes, weighing 500 pounds at 35 days of age. Such pups are called “super weaners.”

Vic and I were not alone as we observed these animals. There were hundreds of other tourists lined up along a barrier fence to watch the behavior of the seals a mere 30 feet away. We faced into a cold wind and stared for long periods of time at all the action below and listening to the noise.

Well, actually it was mostly inaction. Elephant seals spend most of their time on the beach sleeping and flipping sand onto their backs. By mid February, the males have already established their hierarchy and we didn’t witness any real fighting. But there was still plenty of interaction.

One subadult male hauled out onto the beach and attempted to mate with females. He tried three different females, putting his flipper over each one’s back and holding her down with his big nose. But the females didn’t want to mate with a subadult male; they only want a large, dominant male. So the females barked in protest, which woke up the dominant males.

At this stage of mating season, all a dominant male had to do was look at a subordinate male to get him to back off. But this male persisted in his efforts, and one very large male took exception to his actions. He charged the subadult male, who immediately backed off as though he never had any intention of behaving inappropriately toward the beach master’s harem.

To further assert his dominance, the beach master sidled up to one of the females, pulled her to him with his flipper, and mated. There was really no courtship. The males out-weigh the females at least three to one.

Visit https://www.elephantseal.org for more information about these awesome animals. Or you can attend the Friends’ seminar on catastrophic molting in May 5 in San Simeon. There is also a special presentation on the even larger Southern elephant seals on March 17 in Cambria.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at LmurrayPhD@gmail.com.