About elephant seals...

Last weekend, I went on an elephant seal hike to the Ano Nuevo State Reserve. The Reserve is around 25 miles south of Half Moon Bay, and is home to the annual birthing event of Pacific elephant seals. Every year in January, mothers return to this Reserve to give birth to their pups, molt, and mate for the next year. It was fascinating to watch hundreds of these huge mammals and their pups lie on the beach, using different sounds to convey varying messages - moms calling their young to nurse, males establishing their territory, young ones learning their way around etc.

Here are some cool facts that I learned from our very enthusiastic and knowledgeable docent about elephant seals:
* Mothers fast all through the month or so that they are onshore, losing around 40-60% of body weight in this time, not eating even while they nurse. In turn, pups grow from ~ 40 lbs at birth to ~100 lbs in just a month.
* Elephant seals typically won't give birth before the winter solstice, and usually return to the ocean by early February.
* You can quickly identify when a seal is giving birth, as extremely alert sea gulls will swoop in immediately to eat the placenta.
* Seals molt every year during their time on land* Male seals follow the classic hierarchy - alpha male, then the next tier, and so forth
* Male seals are known to swim as far up as Canada
* Even though seals are mammals, they can dive several hundred meters below sea level and stay there for up to 2 hours. Compare this with humans who at best can stay underwater without oxygen tanks for just a few minutes. Also, seals tend to exhale before diving in, whereas humans tend to inhale and then dive.

Several conservation efforts have helped prevent the elephant seal population from heading towards extinction, over the past few years. We learned how the tracking devices attached to several seals help biologists learn more about the seals, map migration routes, and check on their health. For example, if a seal's motion pattern slows down or stops, then the biologists tracking it know something is not quite right with the seal.

While on the hike, our guide pointed out a female seal that was due any moment. We waited for quite a while, but the sun had nearly set yet there no sign of the baby. We were forced to head back, and missed what might have been a perfect ending to a wonderful hike. But hey, we saw a gorgeous Pacific Coast sunset and there's always next year to return and watch at least some residents of Planet Earth, well and thriving :)