Northern bull elephant seals weigh up to 5000 pounds and reach up to 16 feet in length! Their Southern counterparts are larger.
In addition to their size, they are quite bullish in behavior, fighting constantly with other males,
and forcing themselves on often quite unwilling females,
who are much smaller than they are.
On shore they dominate large harems and defend them from other males.
Male Northern Elephant Seals spend eight months alone at sea. They forage in deep dives 24 hours a day, often at the bottom of the ocean, where other predators are scarce.
The deepest recorded bull elephant dive was 5788 feet and the longest recorded continuous dive was just over two hours on one breath!
California male elephant seals forage at the edge of the continental shelf, all the way to the Aleutian islands. Orcas and sharks predate on them and approximately one in three males are killed each year, mainly by orcas.
Cheers to you from the bullish, and amazing, male elephant seals at Piedras Blancas Rookery in California~
Source (and for more information) check out: http://www.elephantseal.org/
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Amazing animals – their life must be rough, judging from all the scars. Great shots, Cindy!
Yes, their scars and a mortality rate of 33% per year for the males!
Darwin would love those stats. 😉
Natural selection in action.
Amazing pictures as always…and these are such huge creatures!
They are massive and amazing! Thank you Maniparna~
I have been to this rookery and you did an excellent job of capturing the immensity of the elephant seals, Cindy. Enjoyed the info too. We are so fortunate that these elephant seals grace our planet. Excellent post, always a treat~~
Yes we are very fortunate particularly to have them so close which wasn’t the case until relatively recently~
sinceramente mi fanno paura questi grandi mostri del mare, hai avuto coraggio con riprese così ravvicinate! e le immagini sono fenomenali!
mille grazie Cindy
Annalisa
Sei molto gentile! Grazie mille. Non si preoccupi. Rimango sicuro~ <3
Great informative post and wonderful pictures! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you more for appreciating the behemoths!
They look like the thugs that they are… but I still admire them.
Exactly. Love forgives all things!
Yikes! Ain’t nature … grand?
Yikes, yes! <3
I can not visualize 5,000 lbs. They need all that fat for the deep dives. Amazing!
Good point!
They’re huge!! And so fierce! Awesome sight though 🙂
Wolfie would have his paws full with these guys!
He’d be running away! lol 🙂
Thinking……”BIG! BIG! BIG!”
Thinking….”Oh WOLF!!! GIANT MONSTERS COME TO EAT ME!! RUN FOR MY LIFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” 🙂
hee hee hee. And when he’s safe he thinks, “To bad they were too big to eat!”
What curious creatures Cindy– don’t we live in an amazing world?? thanks for the photos (beautiful as always) and the information– so interesting. xo
Next time at a cocktail party, if anyone asks you about elephant seals, you’ll be ready! 😉
ha ha ha!! Maybe I’ll have to bring them up myself– but they really are amazing… Hope you have a good weekend ahead Cindy. any plans?? xo
All my wife said was, “Who took your portrait?” Good thing she loves me!
A blogger said the same thing to me, so don’t feel too bad! 😉
Parecen estar entonando una maravillosa canción, pero me temo que será algo desafinada 😉 Un abrazo, amiga <3
Riendo! Estas en lo correcto! Ruidoso y fuera de tono! Abrazos mi amiga~ <3
What amazing creatures. And what a hard life it seems they have. Thanks for sharing, Cindy!
Thank you LInda and yes, a 33% percent annual death rate is extremely hard.
Now those are the true “bathing beauties”!
It is because they are so unself-conscious. Not a bit of worry about a bit of cellulite…..or thousands of pounds of it!
hahaha!!!
<3
I love Piedras Blancas , Cindy even though I have only been there a few times. It is nature up close and personal. Doesn’t get much better. Great photos as always. –Curt
We like many of the same natural spaces my friend. We like these places because they help us to perceive ourselves and the world around us more accurately.
For me going to these places a lot confirms not only my relative unimportance, but the fact that I am infinitesimal, but connected to a far greater and more important whole.
Which is such a gigantic relief!
<3
Always good to back up and see a bigger picture, Cindy. Also reminds us of how important, how precious that bigger picture is— and the need to protect it. –Curt
Exactly.
Up to 5000 pds! It’s wonderful to have such close look of these creatures. Thank you so much, Cindy for posting these amazing photo captures!
Thank you amy! They are berry-big-boys, clumsy on land, but graceful in the water~
Love it!
<3
Man…. And I thought our bulls here in Spain were kind of ugly.
Your bulls are magnificent!
They are actually quite magnificient animals, when you see them up close you see the power of the beast, the hair in your neck stand way up
I love them. We have several free range bulls at The Holler and an African Ankole Watusi bull with a 8 foot horn span. They are powerful and incredible creatures~
Fascinating, Cindy. 1,600 lbs.! That face! Oh, mamma. 🙂 Great photos too.
He’s pretty amazing isn’t he!
The sea-elephants appeared to be active the time you were there.
Oscar
Yes they were getting ready for mating which should be happening around now …..
They give us a semblance of what is the animal kingdom with the lesser known species. In addition you can enjoy your photos that are great.
I am so glad you enjoyed them and happy weekend!
We saw a nature documentary, and one of the episodes involved a hungry bear attacking a pack of bull elephants. These creatures, normally gentle, are dangerous and aggressive creatures if provoked.
Oh yes they can be frightfully aggressive especially during mating and during dominance battles. That video must have been surreal!
The rookery for saving these wild seals. The size and imposition on the poor females probably is more distressing to us than the females which don’t know any better. Or so we hope, Cindy! Sad the babies are lost in the mating moments once in awhile. Take it easy, dear Cindy! <3 xo
Thank goodness for the rookery! Smiles, Robin
(Somehow I pressed a letter and I didn’t realize I lost the first part of .Y comment. 🙂 )
I don’t even notice typos. Obviously. I make so many of them! Hugs to you Robin and thank you for your thoughtfulness, as always my friend. <3
Super photos
Bardzo dziękuję za twą uprzejmość! <3
Spectaculars all these pictures of the male elephant seals. What a gorgeous animal!
I will never forget the first time I saw one. It was an adult male and he was in the water approaching the beach. His head came up out of the water and his eyes were as big as saucers and his head was just massive! I was blown away by him. I still am. So glad you see their beauty too!
Must be astonishing to watch them for real in front of you, I guess I would be also blown away by one of them if I ever come to see him. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience
Thank you more for appreciating these wonderful creatures!
Fantastic shots Cindy – and I always thought they led the life of a lazy beach bum 😉 😀
They spend the bulk of their lives alone, hunting in mid-ocean. I was surprised to learn about this too.
Interesting!
<3
Thank you for the like Cindy. 🙂
<3
Sixteen foot long, that’s incredible!
He is one big boy and his eyes are as big as plates!