My Observations & Ponderings

Since this page is dedicated to my observations and ponderings, I'll be adding to it from time to time.

Observations Pondered January - March 2010

Males

1. Males are for the most part quite benevolent. They seem quite kind except when challenged by another male, or when they feel their turf is being threatened by another male.

2. They emit a series of calls to entice the females to their beach.

3. When the female has given birth, she has some blood in her vaginal area, and I believe that mainly younger males can’t differentiate between this blood and the blood when the female is in heat….which is why they try to mount the female.

4. The smell of blood seems to excite the males, whether it be blood from battle wounds or from a female.

5. This birthing season, 2010, there are no lesser males protecting the alpha males and their harems. It’s every man for himself.

6. As February comes to its midpoint, the males are literally lining up to mate with the females in heat…..and the lesser males are being relatively successful.

7. Mr. Pinky ( so named because of his pink trunk ) arrived around the middle of December and is still master of his section of the beach ( just south of the creek ). So, whoever says that the males that come early, leave early don’t know Mr. Pinky. Also…he doesn’t appear to have lost any weight over these past couple of months…contrary to belief.

8. Whoever says elephant seals can’t climb, hasn’t seen these huge guys scale almost straight up these sheer sandy dunes.

Females

1. This year, 2010, with the extreme high tides and little dry beach space, it appears as though many females are taking care of several pups.

2. When the female first smells her newborn, is she smelling her own scent on the pup, or does the pup have its own unique scent ?

3. It also appears that females that still haven’t given birth will lie parallel to the incoming tide…maybe in an attempt to prevent pups from being washed out to sea.

Pups

1. When the pup is first born, it does not have the muscle strength to swim or the blubber to stay warm in the cold ocean water.

2. Pups that had been repeatedly pulled out to sea were shivering after they fought their way back to dry land.

3. So…if pups up to a couple of weeks old get dragged out to sea…maybe they actually die of hyperthermia….they can’t swim because their muscles are not supple or strong enough in the cold.

4. Gangs of 10-12 pups move from female to female in search of milk…..maybe unique to this year’s storms ?

5. I have yet to see a pup killed by being ‘run-over’ by a male at full charge. Females, on the other hand, seem much more likely to hurt either their own pup by lying on it or other pups by biting them.

Weaners

1. Even though quite a few pups have died from starvation, there are many more than last year who have engorged themselves so much that they appear to weigh well over 500lbs. and are 5-6 feet in length.

Beach Location

1. At a specific beach, the storms have re-shaped the dunes, creating sheer drop-offs to the beach and the creek flows out to the sea…..the big round sand dunes of a few months ago are gone.

2. Most of the female elephant seals and their pups are up in the elevated dunes with no real way back down to the beach. We’ll see how things turn out as the pups are weaned. By the same token, the male elephants seals can’t for the most part get to the females, so the females aren’t being molested by amorous males ! How is this going to effect mating and the resulting pups for next year ?

3. Most of the big males are camped out on the flat beach waiting for females. Their testosterone levels must be really elevated in frustration at lack of access to females.

4. There are 2 gangs of 10-12 pups each on the flats to the south of the creek…roaming from female to female in search of milk. Nearly all the other females are caring for 1 or max 2 pups.

5. February 10^th, I paid another visit to the specific beach …. and immediately saw the elephant seals had carved a path down from the elevated dunes to the flats of the beach….plus it looks as though more sand has been deposited at the base of some of the dunes…or else…the up and down movements of the huge males have eroded the sheer sides. So now the females, pups and weaners can move freely back and forth from the dunes to the beach.