Cooling off
Elephant seals are large oceangoing seals in the genus Mirounga. There are two species: the Northern Elephant Seal and the Southern Elephant Seal. Both were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the nineteenth century, but numbers have since recovered. The Northern Elephant Seal, somewhat smaller than its southern relative, ranges over the Pacific coast of the , Canada and Mexico. The Southern Elephant Seal is found in the southern hemisphere on islands such as South Georgia, Macquarie Island, and on the coasts of New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina in the Peninsula Valdés, which is the fourth largest elephant seal colony in the world. Elephant seals take their name from the large proboscis of the adult males (bulls) which resembles an elephant's trunk. The bull's proboscis is used in producing extraordinarily loud roaring noises, especially during the mating season. More importantly, however, the nose acts as a sort of rebreather, filled with cavities designed to reabsorb moisture from the animals' exhalations. This is important during the mating season when the male seals rarely leave the beach to feed, and therefore must conserve body moisture, as they have no incoming source of water. Bulls of both the northern elephant seal and the southern elephant seal reach a length of 16 ft and a weight of 6,000 lb and are much larger than the cows, which typically measure about 10 ft and 2,000 lb. The largest known bull elephant seal weighed 11,000 lb and measured ft in length. This makes the elephant seal the largest member of the order Carnivora. Elephant seals spend up to 80 percent of their lives in the ocean. They can hold their breath for over 120 minutes—longer than any other non-cetacean mammal. Elephant seals dive to 1550 m beneath the ocean's surface. The average depth of their dives is about 300 to 600 meters, typically for around 20 min for females.
Size: 5242px × 3493px
Location: San Simeon, California, USA
Photo credit: © JJ / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: alaska, aleutian, angustirostris, baja, beach, birthing, blancas, breeding, california, cambria, central, de, dominant, earless, elephant, extinction, feather, fin, flippers, footed, fuca, georgia, gulf, hemisphere, island, islands, juan, mammal, marine, mating, mirounga, molting, northern, ocean, offshore, pacific, phocid, phocidae, piedras, pinnipedia, point, probocis, proboscis, race, rebreather, rehearsing, roaring, rocks, rookery, san, seal, shoreline, simeon, singing, south, southern, tourists, vancouver
