This time of the year, elephant seals gather on California beaches, separated from humans by yellow plastic tape and stern warnings not to approach them. They’re strange animals. This is the only time they spend on land and in the company of other elephant seals. The rest of the year, they are solitary, swimming around the Pacific far from any coast, diving to great depths. Some of them have great scars on their backs that are probably due to shark bites. The males and the females look more different than any mammal I can think of. While the females are just very large, the males are gigantic and reach more than 6 meters (20 feet) and weigh two tons, which is the same than a full-size SUV. They move along the beach on their bellies in a way that one of my kids accurately described as resembling a banana slug. They even make marks that look like snail trails in the sand. During breeding season, the males have the highest recorded testosterone levels of any mammal, and they behave like caricatures of masculinity: they bellow to demonstrate their dominance, don’t tolerate any other males coming close, and occasionally fight by running against each other, throwing their cheats together, and biting each other in the neck.
The females give birth on the beaches, surrounded by seagulls hoping to get a taste of the afterbirth. The pups, to my untrained eye, look like and are the size of wrinkly harbor seals. Getting all their nourishment from their mothers’ milk, they grow fast. The mothers, since they don’t hunt during this time, loose a corresponding amount of weight. After a month, the moms have had enough and return to the open ocean, leaving the pubs to learn to swim and hunt by themselves.
The evening after observing them on the beach, my kids played elephant seal by wrapping blankets around their legs and moving around the floor on their bellies. They also copied the worst of the behaviors, including the fighting and the bellowing. Me telling them to knock it off didn’t have any effect since it was too much fun.
Nehaveigur 