Elephant Seal
sea_elephant
Northern Elephant Seal
Mirounga angustirostris
About
The northern elephant seal is a giant among seals, with bulls far outweighing anything else a diver is likely to meet on a dive. It can grow up to 500 cm long and reach a weight of 2,200 kg.
- Length
- 5 m
- Weight
- max 2.2 t
- Depth
- up to 1580 m
How to tell it apart
Unlike sea lions, elephant seals have no external ear flaps, just small openings on the sides of the head. A bull's huge size and blotchy pink-and-brown neck also set it apart from other seals.
Appearance
Males are massive, with thick, calloused skin on the neck and chest marked in pink, white, and light brown. Females are much smaller and slimmer. Pups are born with dark, almost black fur, which turns silvery grey after their first moult, later fading to tan. All have large, round, black eyes.
Habitat
Northern elephant seals live in the eastern Pacific and spend most of their time at sea, diving to depths beyond 1,580 m. They only come ashore on remote islands or isolated beaches to give birth, breed, and moult.
Behaviour
Bulls fight for control of a beach and can hold a harem of 30 to 100 females. Males fast for three months on land, while females fast for five weeks while nursing a single pup.
Conservation
This species was hunted for its blubber almost to extinction, dropping to as few as 20 to 40 animals by the late 1800s. Legal protection let the population recover to over 200,000 today.
Did you know?
Every northern elephant seal alive today descends from as few as 20 to 40 survivors of 19th-century hunting, one of the tightest population bottlenecks known in a large mammal.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
