Elephant seal briefly. Sea Elephant

Elephant seals- these are giants from the family of true seals. They are very similar to hooded seals, but are significantly larger in size. In nature, there are only 2 species of elephant seals: northern and southern.

They justify their name 100%. They are so huge that they cannot be compared with anyone other than elephants.
They grow up to 5 meters in length and weigh up to 2.5 tons!

Females are somewhat smaller than their male counterparts. They rarely grow more than 3 meters. What distinguishes the elephant seal from other representatives of true seals is the number subcutaneous fat. They can accumulate it in astronomical amounts. Fat can make up 35% of the total mass.

They also look like elephants because of the fleshy growth on their nose. Of course, this is not a full-fledged elephant trunk, but in comparison this detail is not unimportant.

This “instrument” is used as a resonator for menacing roars, and as an intimidating element during the mating season.

Females do not have such an attribute of masculinity.

The skin of the elephant seal, as befits an elephant, is rough and thick. It is covered with short thick fur. Adults are all brown in color. The young are silver-gray.

Southern elephant seals live on the shores of Patagonia and on the sub-Antarctic islands. The northern ones have chosen the North American shores, spreading from Mexico and California to Canada. Elephant seals are rarely seen alone. They form huge rookeries on pebble beaches.

Elephant seals form two types of rookeries. On one, they make eyes at each other. These rookeries are called feeding grounds.

There are also breeding grounds. There, females give birth and raise young. This state of affairs is very wise. Elephant seals are very clumsy on land. With their weight they can simply destroy all the young animals. Therefore, maternity hospitals and kindergarten are located several hundred kilometers from the feeding beach.

Elephant seals feed on mollusks. Sometimes they can eat a small fish.

These animals are very calm and apathetic. But! If you get the opportunity to see them in person, don’t test their patience for too long!

Cubs are born once a year. The mating season begins in August-September, when southern hemisphere spring begins.

First, adult males and females arrive on the beach. The young arrive a little later. Males begin to divide the beach, occupying their own pieces of territory. They zealously protect their “cuts” of the beach from other males. If necessary, they engage in battle with each other. The males inflate their proboscis, roar menacingly and bite each other until there is blood and severe injuries. What can I say... Love is evil.

The female becomes someone's by simply coming to the territory of this male. Once she comes, it means she needs to mate. Unless, of course, her opponent takes her away.

Some males manage to form a large harem of females. There can be up to 30 representatives of the fairer sex. Pregnancy lasts up to 11 months. The most interesting thing is that the mating season coincides with the birthing season.

After feeding her offspring with milk for just one month, the mother is in a hurry to conceive again. The babies, by the way, weigh up to 30 kilograms at birth, leave the rookery, and wait a couple more months until the molt passes. At this time, they eat practically nothing, and are alive only because mother’s milk is an explosive mixture of proteins and carbohydrates, with an incredible calorie content. Sucked out and deposited in subcutaneous fat in a month is enough to maintain strength for another 2 months.

Elephant seals are considered enemies in nature

Elephant seals (lat. Mirounga) - genus of the largest carnivorous mammals from the family of true seals, its name comes from the long trunk-shaped nose of the males. With the help of this “trunk” the male gives a signal of danger or reports the conquest of his own harem.

Elephant seals spend most of their lives underwater, feeding on fish and shellfish. They are able to dive to a depth of about 1400 meters, holding their breath for more than two hours. At the same time, their activities internal organs slows down, allowing you to save money required amount oxygen. Their natural enemies are and waiting for the long-nosed seals in upper layers water.

Elephant seals come ashore only in the warm season in order to give birth to offspring and conceive new ones. For three whole months the huge colonies fill coastal zones. Two to three dozen females give birth to babies under the protection of one male.

Fierce battles are fought for the harems, in which opponents are capable of inflicting serious injuries on each other. Every year, additional scars appear on the body of the strongest and largest males.

It is interesting that outwardly clumsy and clumsy elephant seals literally change before our eyes during fights. Sometimes they even stand up straight giant growth and, vigorously waving their straightened trunk and hindquarters, perform amazing pirouettes.

Young three- to four-year-old elephant seals are forced to lead a bachelor lifestyle - they are forced out of the colony by their more mature eight-year-old brothers. Considering this state of affairs to be unfair, they from time to time try to break through to the “married” females, which leads to new fights.

In harems, their own family life is in full swing. Each “wife” gives birth to one cub, about 80 cm long and weighing 20 kg. His mother feeds him nutritious milk for 4-5 weeks, after which he must fend for himself. Having left her, he remains on the shore for another month, extracting nutrients from the fat layer. During this period, molting occurs, after which the baby goes on its first voyage.

The female is ready for a new fertilization approximately a month after giving birth. Her pregnancy will last a long 11 months. Having conceived, she fattens up a little at sea, and then goes to bed for the post-nuptial molt. Mature males are the last to molt.

Interestingly, during this period, animals of all ages relax so much that you can approach them closely. The body of seals resembles spread jelly, they absolutely do not pay attention to what is happening around them. Having finished their “land” affairs, elephant seals go to the ocean.

There are two known species of these mammals: northern and southern elephant seals. The first are found on islands along the west coast North America. They are slightly smaller than their southern relatives. Males weigh 2.7 tons with a body length of almost 5 m. Their trunk reaches 30 cm, which is much larger than that of the “southerners”.

Southern elephant seals gather in colonies on subantarctic archipelagos and islands such as Kerguelen, Macquarie, Heard and South Georgia. Individual individuals are found on the coasts of Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. The weight of the largest males can reach 3.5 tons, and body length - 6.5 m. Females of both species are half the size of their partners.

In our age, when humanity has penetrated into space and we are eager to find at least some living organisms on Mars or other planets, we can’t help but wonder: are we really familiar with our earthly brethren? How much do we know about them? Do we know their way of life? Needs? Behavior? Relationships with the outside world?

You don't have to look far for examples. How many of us have seen a live elephant seal? Of course, almost everyone knows that such animals exist. But few people were lucky enough to see natural conditions these giants, exceeding the size and weight of rhinoceroses, hippos and walruses. Elephant seals live in remote places, namely: in Patagonia - off the coast of Argentina, on the Macquarie Islands - south of Tasmania, on Signy Island, on South Georgia.

So what are these elephant seals like?

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First let's say that these are huge. pinnipeds mammals, belonging to the genus of earless seals (Phocidae), so named in contrast to the eared seals - Otariidae. The length of males is from three to six meters, and such a colossus weighs up to two tons! In body shape, these giants resemble walruses, and their skin is just as thick and hard, but they do not have walrus tusks, but they do have something like a short thick trunk (which is what elephant seals owe their name to). Very few of these amazing animals have survived to our time. And if we hadn’t realized it at the last moment, they would have completely disappeared from the face of the Earth, like their close relatives - the sea cows, discovered by naturalist Georg Steller in 1741, during an expedition in the Bering Sea. Having described these huge, harmless herbivores, which were easy to shoot thanks to their slowness and gullibility, Steller involuntarily showed the way to easy prey for various enterprising people. By 1770 sea ​​cows(later called Steller's) no longer existed.

Fortunately, this did not happen to elephant seals. Primarily because they live in areas difficult for humans to reach: they either swim in the icy water of the polar seas of the southern hemisphere, where, in addition, sharp storm winds never subside, or they briefly go to their rookeries located on the deserted rocky shores of Patagonia or on small lost in the ocean islands. In addition, elephant seals, unlike their harmless relatives - dugongs, or sirens, peacefully nibbling sea grass in underwater “meadows”, are by no means defenseless animals. Especially the males. Their teeth are sharp and their strength is enormous. An adult male can be quite aggressive. Elephant seals are predators: they feed on various aquatic animals, mainly fish.

There are two species of elephant seals: northern (Mirounga angustirostris) and southern (Mirounga leonina). The northern species, which differs from the southern one in having a narrower and longer trunk, lives in Californian and Mexican waters. Due to predatory fishing in the last century, this species almost completely disappeared. By 1890, only about a hundred northern elephant seals remained, and only the strict ban on fishing that followed allowed them to increase their numbers again. In 1960 there were already fifteen thousand of them.

Herds of the southern species were also subjected to merciless extermination, the former vast range of which is now limited to only a few Antarctic islands, such as Kerguelen, Crozet, Marion, and South Georgia. Several rookeries have also survived on Macquarie and Heard Islands. However, in the temperate zone, where previously there were also rookeries of these animals, for example, on south coast Chile, on King Island near Tasmania or on the Falkland Islands and Juan Fernandez Island - now you won’t see a single one...

Today, elephant seals can be said to have somewhat recovered from past shocks. In some places they have even restored their former numbers. But this, of course, is only where the animals are strictly protected, for example on the Argentine Valdez Peninsula, declared a protected area, or on the Macquarie or Heard Islands, where hunting them has been prohibited for forty-five years. The animals there are clearly thriving, and their numbers are growing year by year. As for islands such as South Georgia and Kerguelen, part of the herd is still shot there from time to time. True, it is claimed that they do this under strict scientific control.

Why were elephant seals so attractive to fishermen? These animals were hunted for their subcutaneous fat alone. Its layer reaches a thickness of fifteen centimeters! The animal needs it to protect it from heat loss in the icy water in which it spends most of its life. And it was this fat that turned out to be so attractive. For his sake, elephant seals were mercilessly killed, whole mountains of their carcasses towered along the shores, and right there on the shore, fat was melted out in huge vats specially installed for this purpose... On the Patagonian coast of Argentina alone, from 1803 to 1819, North American, English and Dutch fishermen drowned a total of one million seven hundred and sixty thousand liters of “elephant fat”. This means that the number of animals killed for this purpose reached no less than four to six thousand! They killed them in the most barbaric way: they cut off the path to saving water and stabbed them with spears or shoved burning torches into their open mouths...

And now, on the shores of many islands of Patagonia, these huge vats and other equipment for rendering fat are lying around, rusting in the salty sea wind... These abandoned vats seem to personify the sad memory of the thoughtless and irresponsible exploitation of nature by man in the recent past and serve as a warning to future generations...

And now, when people have stopped killing elephant seals, the time has come to study them. This is being done by several groups of scientists from different countries. Very successful observations of the life of these giants were carried out on the islands of Signy and South Georgia by English biologists under the leadership of Dr. R. M. Loves from the British Antarctic Survey; at the same time, Australian scientists, led by Dr. R. Carrick, were working on Macquarie and Heard Islands. The results of their research were published in Canberra in 1964. Somewhat later, the famous English zoologist John Warham conducted observations on the same islands.

What did you manage to find out about this rare and little-studied animal?

Despite their colossal size, the elephant seal is a good swimmer. This is facilitated by the spindle-shaped shape of its body. The elephant seal is capable of swimming at speeds of up to twenty-three kilometers per hour. Moreover, in icy water, a kind of “quilted jacket” - a thick layer of subcutaneous fat - serves as reliable protection from the cold. In the water, this heavy animal shows extraordinary maneuverability and dexterity: after all, here it has to get its food by chasing fish, looking for accumulations of plankton and various crustaceans. The elephant seal is much less suited to living on land, although it has to spend a good quarter of its life there. It’s hard to imagine a slower and more clumsy animal here! He painfully drags his heavy body along the rocky soil, moving with only his front flippers. At this time, it resembles a huge snail or caterpillar: one “step” for an elephant seal is only thirty-five centimeters! Own weight, so invisible in water, on land it becomes an unbearable burden for the animal. It is not surprising that the elephant seal quickly gets tired from exertion, lies down and immediately falls asleep in a rich, uninterrupted sleep. The elephant seal's sleep is truly sound - in any case, waking it up is not so easy. This is explained by the fact that for a very long time these giants had no enemies on land, and they, like rhinoceroses, had no one to fear and no need to sleep lightly.

The deep sleep of elephant seals repeatedly surprised the English zoologist John Warham, who carried out his observations on Macquarie Island. Every morning, leaving his tent, he came across elephant seals lying sideways in front of the door and blocking his path. These were all molting young males ranging from three to four and a half meters long. They slept completely serenely, their breathing was deep and noisy, sometimes even turning into loud snoring. However, it didn’t take much effort for the researcher to get over them: he walked right on their backs, and by the time these bumpkins realized that they had been walked on in forged boots (which made them raise their heads in fear), the troublemaker was already far away...

No less amazing is the ability of elephant seals to sleep underwater. But how do animals manage to breathe at this time? After all, they have lungs, not gills!.. Scientists managed to figure out the secret of such underwater sleep. After five or ten minutes underwater rib cage The animal expands, but the nostrils remain tightly closed. As a result, the density of the body decreases and it floats up. At the surface of the water, the nostrils open and the animal inhales air for about three minutes. Then it sinks to the bottom again. The eyes remain closed all this time: the elephant is clearly sleeping.

Stones are commonly found in the elephant seal's stomach. Residents of the places where these animals live believe that the stones serve as ballast while the elephants dive under water. There are other explanations. For example, stones in the stomach can contribute to the grinding of food - whole swallowed fish and crustaceans.

Elephant seals feed mainly on fish, and not cuttlefish, as was previously thought. Cuttlefish in their “menu” is no more than two percent. But an adult elephant seal eats a lot of fish. According to the famous zoologist Hagenbeck, the five-meter Goliath elephant seal kept in his menagerie ate an average of fifty kilograms of fish per day! Messages of this kind have led some ichthyologists to argue that the disappearance of elephant seals is a good thing, because they allegedly disputed the fishermen’s catch... However, careful research has shown the absurdity of such conclusions: elephant seals feed mainly on small sharks and rays that are not listed commercial fish... On land, during the breeding season, elephant seals are able to fast for weeks: during this time they do not eat anything, but live off their internal fat reserves.

A thorough study of these animals in last years lifted the veil over many secrets of their lives and behavior. In some ways, these clumsy colossi turned out to be quite a convenient object for the researcher: it didn’t cost anything, for example, to measure their length, calculate the number of individual herds, their composition, age groups, observe the “family” life of these animals, the birth of young animals, etc. d. But try weighing such a huge thing! After all, after all, a male who has reared up (and this is their usual pose of threat) becomes as tall as a good column, and even the sight of just one photograph of such a giant is awe-inspiring. Where can we even think about grabbing him and throwing him on the scales!.. No, studying such animals is not an easy task, and you have to be a real enthusiast to take it on. After all, we must not forget about climatic features places where these observations are carried out: about continuous prickly winds, icy water, a bare, inhospitable rocky landscape... And yet, the researchers managed to carry out very important work, which made it possible not only to determine the age of individual individuals, but also to trace their migrations, seasonal changes herd composition, molting process, relationships in the herd.

But let's start in order. For four years, Australian researchers on Heard and Macquarie Islands systematically branded elephant seal pups, much like domestic calves or foals. By 1961, nearly seven thousand elephant calves had been tagged. This subsequently made it possible to accurately determine the age of a particular animal, the order in which different age groups appear at the rookery, the attachment of individual individuals to their “homeland” or the tendency to change places... Thus, the female number “M-102” for four years in a row gave birth to offspring in the same place and only in the fifth year moved half a kilometer further. Other patterns also emerged. For example, “teenage” groups of elephant seals appear at the rookery much later than adults participating in breeding, which usually occurs from August to mid-November. Shedding in animals of different age groups also occurs in different time. Thus, the rookery is almost never empty - only the contingent of its inhabitants changes.

Among the males, four groups can be clearly distinguished. The first - “teenage” - includes animals aged from one to six years, their size does not exceed three meters. They appear at the rookery in winter, especially after storms, with the obvious purpose of taking a break from swimming. These animals appear before anyone else to molt - in December (the beginning of summer in the southern hemisphere), and then all other animals appear in order of seniority: the older in age, the later.

The second, or “youthful” group is formed by animals aged from six to thirteen years, their size is from three to four and a half meters. They swim to the beach in the fall, soon after the females give birth to their cubs, but they do not engage in fights with older males and swim out to sea even before the start of the rut (after the cubs are weaned).

The next age group is the so-called applicants. Such males, measuring from four and a half to six meters, with a proudly inflating trunk, are in a constantly aggressive mood and try to fight with the owners of the rookery - the owners of the “harems” - powerful old males, trying to take away some of the females from them. These old, experienced males make up the fourth age group.

Such a “harem” owner is a very impressive figure. He is huge, imposing, jealous and aggressive. If he had been different, he would not have held his “post.” After all, a “harem” usually consists of several dozen females, and in order to keep all these curious ones in obedience, trying to scatter into different sides and beauties “flirtying” with every “contender” that appears, you need remarkable strength and a vigilant eye... Seeing a rival, the owner of the “harem” emits an angry roar and rushes towards him, destroying everything that gets in his way: knocking over females and trampling on cubs... Such a “ “master” in general is, as a rule, an extremely “insensitive” animal. It often happens that he crushes newborn cubs to death. A case is described when a male went to bed, crushing a desperately screaming cub under him, but did not even think of getting up to free the unfortunate one.

If the “harem” turns out to be too large for one owner, he is forced to allow “assistants” into his territory, guarding its remote areas...

Observations have shown that the same old and strong male dominates the “harem” throughout the entire breeding season, and younger and weaker males are often forced to give up their place to a rival that is superior in strength. Although male fights usually take place in the water, not far from the shore, panic also begins on the beach at this time - alarmed females scream, the cubs try to escape. Therefore, from “harems” where they are too often disturbed, females try to move to calmer “harems”.

The fight between males is an impressive spectacle. The rivals, having swam up to each other, rear up, rising about four meters above the shallow water, and freeze in this position for several minutes, reminiscent of stone sculptures of monsters. The animals emit a dull roar, their trunks swell menacingly, showering the enemy with a cascade of spray. After such a performance, the weaker enemy usually retreats backwards, continuing to roar threateningly, and, having moved to a safe distance, takes off running. The winner lets out a proud cry and, after making several false throws after the fugitive, calms down and returns to the beach.

When none of the opponents is going to concede, the battle flares up in earnest. Then both powerful bodies loudly hit each other, with a quick and sharp movement of the head, each tries to sink his fangs into the opponent’s neck. However, the skin of the elephant seal is so hard and slippery, and also equipped with a thick cushion of subcutaneous fat, that serious injuries rarely occur. True, scars and scars remain on the neck of males for life, but that’s all.

No matter how terrifying such a battle may look from the outside, in most cases it does not lead to serious bloodshed. Usually everything is limited to mutual intimidation, terrifying roars and sniffles. The biological meaning of this behavior is clear: the strongest is identified, who will take on the functions of a producer during the mating season and, as a continuer of the clan, will pass on his offspring to his offspring. positive traits. At the same time, the weaker young male does not die on the battlefield and thus is not excluded from the further process of reproduction of the species...

When individual plots and “harems” have already been distributed, there are practically no battles between neighboring males: even if someone violates territorial integrity, it is enough for the “master” to rise up and growl for the border violator to immediately leave.

Tall males do not always show aggressiveness towards humans. And it is not they, but the females that may turn out to be the most dangerous for a researcher who dares to penetrate into the very thick of the herd. John Warham, for example, more than once had to get acquainted with their sharp teeth and run away shamefully, leaving a good piece of his trouser leg as a souvenir for the angry elephant seal...

It is worth telling more about the females. Females are significantly smaller than males - they rarely reach three meters in length and a ton of weight. They grow slowly, but physically develop faster than males: by two to three years they become sexually mature, while males reach sexual maturity much later.

The breeding season lasts from August to mid-November. Females appear at the rookery already “during pregnancy” and within five days they bear offspring. Most babies will be born from late September to mid-October. Owners of “harems” vigilantly guard the females during the period of birth of offspring.

Both females and males arrive at the beach well-fed after fattening up thoroughly at sea. This is necessary for the long “fast” that they have to endure on land: males “fast” for up to two weeks, and females even for a whole month! But during this time, the females will have to endure all the hardships associated with childbirth and feeding the cubs, and the males will have to endure the stress of the subsequent mating season and the associated fights with rivals.

Having appeared on the beach and preparing for childbirth, the females are located at some distance from each other, and do not lie closely side by side, as in normal times. The birth itself lasts only about twenty minutes, and the baby is born sighted. Moreover, he is very pretty: covered with wavy black fur and looking at the world huge radiant eyes. But the “baby” weighs about fifty kilograms, and reaches a length of one and a half meters, that is, the size of an adult seal...

Having been born, the cub emits a short bark, reminiscent of a dog, and the mother responds in kind, sniffs it and thus remembers it. Subsequently, she will unmistakably distinguish him among many other cubs and will be able to return him if he tries to escape.

The upcoming birth can be immediately determined by the fact that loud, large brown birds, called skua in some areas, are circling above the woman in labor. These birds work as “midwives” for elephant seals. With extraordinary agility they remove birth membranes and placenta, and on occasion they can even cope with a stillborn baby. Skua is not averse to treating herself to the milk of nursing females spilled on the ground.

This milk is unusually nutritious (almost half consists of fat), and the cubs grow with unprecedented speed: they gain from five to twelve kilograms per day! In the first eleven days they double their weight, and in two and a half weeks they triple it. They gain length, albeit a little, but they build up an impressive layer of fat - seven and a half centimeters, which they will need first of all: it should protect their body from hypothermia during the upcoming long stay in the water.

After about a month, the females stop feeding the cubs, or “kochoro” as they are called in Patagonia. By this time, their “baby” black fur has been replaced by silver-gray, and they look very well-fed and happy. Soon they leave the “harem”, crawling deeper into the beach, where they rest and build up their muscles. At the age of five weeks, the young begin their first timid attempts at swimming. On quiet, windless evenings, baby elephant seals clumsily descend into the sun-heated water of lagoons or the remaining basins after low tide and carefully swim near the shore. Gradually they become more confident and bolder, they venture on longer sea excursions, until, at nine weeks old, they finally leave their native rookery and swim off into the distance...

And again, one can only be amazed at how intelligently everything is arranged in nature. The young become independent precisely at the period when the prospects for their survival are most favorable. Just at this time, the surface of the sea is covered with a particularly thick layer of plankton, and young elephant seals are provided with easily accessible and high-calorie food for several months.

However, control over marked animals showed something else: half of the cubs die in the first year of their life. Later, losses are significantly reduced, and approximately forty percent of the young animals reach four years of age.

Based on these data, Australian experts came to the following important conclusions. If it is necessary to shoot some part of the elephant seal herd (due to overcrowding of the rookery, lack of food, etc.), then it should be young animals aged from five weeks to one year. But it is completely unacceptable to shoot adult males, as was once practiced in South Georgia, where about six thousand of them were once killed in one summer. Without proper protection of the “harems” by old, experienced males, the herds decline, because young males begin to wage continuous battles with each other, challenging primacy. This is what incompetent human intervention in the affairs of nature leads to and therefore we must avoid rash actions without sufficient scientific justification.

But let's return to the elephant seal rookery, from where the young have just departed. After the “weaning” of the cubs, the females mate again with the owner of the “harem” and soon after that they go to sea - to take a break from the hardships of childbirth, to eat well and build up new layer fat until its next appearance at the rookery - in February, during the molting period.

And here we should mention one of the most amazing adaptations of the animal organism to the conditions of existence: the development of the embryo in the womb of the female is temporarily suspended, and the embryo is, as it were, “preserved” for the entire unfavorable period of the animal’s life - in in this case during molting. (A similar phenomenon is observed in some other animals - many pinnipeds, as well as in sable, rabbit, kangaroo, etc.) The development of the embryo continues only in March, when the molting of females is already completed.

Powerful males, the owners of the beach, show up to molt much later - around the beginning of April. Intense life at the rookery requires longer recuperation.

As already mentioned, the younger ones appear first, and later the older ones. During molting, age groups stay together, but according to gender: females with females, and males with males. Molting lasts, depending on age, one to two months. Until it is completely over, animals will never set sail, because at this time they are sensitive blood vessels the skin is greatly expanded and sudden cooling can cause disruption of the thermoregulation mechanism, which means inevitable death in icy water.

The molting elephant seal has the most deplorable appearance: old skin hanging on it in torn rags. First it comes off the muzzle, and then from the rest of the body. At the same time, the poor creatures scratch their sides and stomach with their flippers, trying to speed up this obviously unpleasant process for them...

Shedding animals usually settle down in some moss-covered swamp, not far from the shore, and, restlessly tossing and turning, stir up the loose soil, turning it into a dirty mess. They plunge into it up to their nostrils. The stench around at this time is terrifying. So not every tourist is able to withstand it... By the way, about tourists visiting protected places. As already mentioned, the Argentine government has declared the small Valdez Peninsula in northern Patagonia a protected area. A colony of elephant seals, numbering several hundred heads, settled on this peninsula. It is called “elephantery” (elephant colony), and recently access has been opened to visitors. One hundred and sixty-five kilometers from the rookery, the resort town of Puerto Madryn arose. And since the water here is often too cold for swimming, many vacationers willingly take excursions to the “elephanteria”. They offer paid tour guides. In addition, the tourist route, which runs through a number of South American countries, includes a visit to the Valdez Peninsula with its elephant seal rookery. The ever-increasing flow of tourists, loudly expressing their delight and constantly clicking cameras, certainly unnerves the animals and disrupts their usual way of life, especially at a time when females give birth. The males who own the “harems” here began to behave much more aggressively than usual. They angrily rush towards annoying visitors, trying to drive them away from “their” territory, or drive their entire “harem” into the water...

There are 2 species in the genus:

southern elephant seal - M. leonina Linnaeus, 1758 (subantarctic waters circumpolar north to 16° S and south to Antarctic pack ice - 78° S; breeds near Punta Norte and Tierra del Fuego in Argentina and on islands of Falkland, South Shetland, South Orkney, South Georgia, South Sandwich, Gough, Marion, Prince Edward, Crozet, Kerguelen, Heard, Macquarie, Auckland, Campbell);

northern elephant seal - M. angustirostris Gill, 1866 (islands off the coast of Mexico and California north to Vancouver and Prince of Wales islands; breeds on San Nicolas, San Miguel, Guadalupe and San Benito islands).

The northern elephant seal was recently close to extinction due to overfishing, but Lately Thanks to the ban on fishing, its numbers have increased significantly and continue to increase.

The total number of southern elephant seals is estimated at 600-700 thousand heads, and the northern ones - only 10-15 thousand heads.

Southern elephant seals are hunted on coastal haulouts, and there are restrictions on fishing according to seasons, the size of seals harvested, at least 3.5 m in length, and their number. For example, in 1951 it was allowed to kill 8 thousand elephant seals; harvested 7877. Fat and skin are obtained from hunted animals.

The southern elephant (lat. Mirounga leonina) is the largest representative of the family of True seals (lat. Phocidae) on our planet. This pinniped predator is the original inhabitant of the cold regions of the Southern Hemisphere.

Even two hundred years ago, sailors described the elephant seals they saw and killed, up to 9 m in size and weighing about 5 tons. Modern zoologists do not believe in the existence of such giants, although males reaching 6.5 m and weighing more than 3.5 tons are still quite common today.

The mass extermination of these animals until the mid-twentieth century occurred mainly for the sake of their unusually durable skin and fat (blub). Up to 350 kg of fat was rendered from one elephant seal, used for food and for lighting homes. In 1964, the species was taken under protection and is currently not threatened, and the total population has reached approximately 750 thousand individuals.

The mammal got its name due to the presence of a leathery sac in males, reminiscent of an elephant's trunk.

Behavior

Southern elephant seals spend most of their lives in cold ocean waters. They come to the shores of Antarctica and nearby islands only during the molting and mating season.

In the ocean, these giants not only hunt and dive to great depths, but also rest and even sleep. They sleep underwater, holding their breath for up to 20 minutes. Then they wake up, take a deep breath and fall back into a pleasant slumber. On land, the sleep phase is shorter and does not exceed 10 minutes.

Elephant seals feed on stingrays, sharks, bony fish and cephalopods, but their teeth are weak. Although the fangs reach a length of 4 cm, they are used more for ritual fights than for tearing prey. Due to poorly developed molars, it is very difficult for the elephant seal to chew solid food, so its main and favorite food is cephalopods.

During hunting, the animal can dive to a depth of up to 1000 m.

It swims by rowing vigorously with its front flippers. The rear flippers serve as rudders and help maneuver through the water. Dive on greater depth allowed by strong muscles that tightly compress the nostrils. This muscle reflex is so strong that the animal can suffocate under water, but will never choke.

Molting occurs from February to mid-April. At this time, animals come out onto land in huge herds. They are located in damp meadows or peat bogs and lie in the mud for weeks until they shed their old fur and layer of epidermis. There is a terrible stench over their rookery at this time. After molting, elephant seals go back to sea for the next 4 months.

Reproduction

The mating season runs from mid-August to the end of October. The males are the first to swim to land and seize sections of the shore, declaring their rights with a loud roar.

There are constant fights for territory. Males rise on their flippers and rush at each other, inflicting deep wounds with their fangs. As a result, almost every adult elephant's skin is covered with scars. Many males die as a result of their wounds.

Before the fight, the males inflate their “trunks”, trying to scare the enemy.

Often it will swell more in a stronger fighter than in a weaker one. Some people simply drop their trunk from stress, and they admit defeat without getting into a fight. The showdown lasts for 2 weeks, after which the females swim to the rookery.

Harems are formed around the winning males. Coming onto land, the first thing females do is give birth to cubs, conceived a year ago. Babies are born covered with soft black fur, weighing from 45 to 50 kg and a body length of 125-130 cm. For a month, mothers feed them very rich milk.

During this time, the babies gain weight three times and at the end of lactation they form separate rookeries from the adults. After this, the females are again ready to reproduce.

Each male's harem consists of 20-30 females, whom he jealously protects from the encroachments of anxious competitors. Males often press to death not only the babies, but also the mothers nursing them. This fate befalls a tenth of the offspring.

After mating, the females immediately go to sea. Pregnancy lasts 11 months, of which 4 months the embryo is in the latent stage and does not develop. Severely emaciated female elephants struggle to get to feeding areas, where they actively hunt to replenish their fat reserves.

Only when fat reserves reach normal levels do the embryos in their body begin to develop again.

Female elephant seals become sexually mature in the third year of life, and males at the age of 3-7 years, depending on the population size.

Description

The body length of adult males reaches 5-6.5 m, and they weigh from 2.4 to 3.5 tons. Females are much smaller. Their body length does not exceed 3 m, and their weight is 900 kg.

The body is very muscular and has a streamlined shape. It is covered with short hair. The skin on the nape and neck is very hard and very keratinized.

The head is short and rounded. Nose and top part The muzzles of males are modified into a leathery sac, similar to the trunk of an elephant. The fore and hind limbs are transformed into flippers. The forelimbs are equipped with strong claws.

The lifespan of female elephant seals is about 14 years. Males in captivity live up to 20-22 years, but in natural conditions they die in fights much earlier.