Where does the elephant seal live? Northern elephant seal

Elephant seals- These are pinnipeds from the family of true seals. In their order, these animals are the largest and exceed the size of the well-known walruses. The closest relative of elephant seals is the hooded seal, with which they share common features. There are 2 types of elephant seals - northern and southern.

Male northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris).

Elephant seals did not get their name by chance; they really are animals. gigantic sizes. The body length of male southern elephant seals can reach up to 5 m and weight up to 2.5 tons! Females are much smaller and reach a length of “only” 3 m. Elephant seals differ from other seals in their overall heavy build and a large number subcutaneous fat. The weight of the fat layer can be 30% of total mass animal.

Penguins next to a southern elephant seal give an idea of the animal's size.

In addition to their size, elephant seals have another feature that makes them look like real elephants. The males of these animals have a thick, fleshy outgrowth on their nose, similar to a short trunk. During the mating season, the trunk is used for decoration, intimidation and as a resonator, enhancing the menacing roar.

Male northern elephant seals during a mating fight.

Females do not have a trunk.

Female northern elephant seal.

The skin of elephant seals is thick and rough like that of a walrus, but covered with short, thick fur like that of real seals. Adult elephant seals are brown in color, while juveniles are silver-gray.

Juvenile southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina).

Geographically, both species are also separated: southern elephant seals live on the coast of Patagonia and the subantarctic islands, and northern ones live on the west coast North America- from Mexico and California to Canada. Both species prefer to settle on pebble beaches and gently sloping rocky coasts. Elephant seals, unlike other seals, form fairly large rookeries, numbering up to a thousand individuals.

A female southern elephant seal at a rookery.

Interestingly, southern elephant seals have two types of rookeries - for breeding and for feeding. Feeding rookeries are several hundred kilometers away from the “maternity hospitals,” so elephant seals regularly migrate. These animals feed mainly on cephalopods, and less often on fish. In general, elephant seals are quite calm and even apathetic animals. Because of his heavy weight on land they are clumsy and behave sluggishly.

The breeding season occurs only once a year and begins in August-October (in the Southern Hemisphere this is spring). Mature males and females are the first to arrive at the maternity rookeries, and the young arrive a little later. During mating season males are transformed beyond recognition. If at normal times they simply sleep on the shore, then during the rut they lose peace and sleep. Each male occupies a certain area of the beach and does not allow other males onto it. When competition increases, opponents converge in a fierce battle. They roar loudly, puff up their noses and funny shake them in the air to intimidate the enemy. But it looks funny only to an outside observer because the males themselves, in fights, bite each other until they bleed and often inflict severe injuries on their opponents.

Male southern elephant seals in a bloody duel.

And the whole point is that every female entering a male’s territory becomes his chosen one and mates with him (unless, of course, she is beaten off by an opponent). This is how males form harems of 10-30 females around themselves. Pregnancy lasts 11 months, so birth and mating occur almost simultaneously. Females give birth to one large baby, the “baby” weighs 20-30 kg! Baby elephant seals are born black. Their mothers feed them milk for a little over a month, after which the young move to the periphery of the rookery and do not enter the water for several more weeks. All this time, the cubs live off the reserves of subcutaneous fat accumulated during feeding with milk. After some time, the animals molt, after which they leave the breeding grounds.

Elephant seal during molting.

Despite their large size, many elephant seals (primarily young ones) die in the jaws of killer whales and sharks. Sometimes males die from wounds and general exhaustion during the rut; in addition, adult males often crush their cubs in the cramped rookery. In general, these animals are not very fertile, and their numbers have been greatly undermined by fishing. Previously, elephant seals were hunted for the rendered fat (up to 400 kg from one male!), meat and skins. The fishery has now ceased, but the number of northern elephant seals is still low.

Yawning elephant seal.

Including the largest representatives of the order carnivorous mammals. They owe their name to the trunk-shaped nose of males and their large dimensions. Despite the fact that elephant seals are true seals, in their behavior and some other characteristics they are more reminiscent of eared seals. There are two very similar species - the northern elephant seal, which lives on the west coast of North America, and the southern elephant seal, which lives in Antarctica.

Appearance

Elephant seals did not get their name by chance; these animals are truly gigantic in size. The body length of male southern elephant seals can reach up to 5 m and weight up to 2.5 tons! Females are much smaller and reach a length of “only” 3 m. Elephant seals differ from other seals in their overall heavy build and large amount of subcutaneous fat. The weight of the fat layer can be 30% of the total weight of the animal.

Features of behavior

Elephant seals spend most of their lives underwater, feeding on fish and shellfish. They are able to dive to a depth of about 140 meters, holding their breath for more than two hours. At the same time, the activity of their internal organs slows down, which saves the necessary amount of oxygen. Their natural enemies there are also white sharks waiting for 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, huge colonies fill the coastal zones.

Young three- to four-year-old elephant seals are forced to lead a bachelor lifestyle - they are pushed out of the edges 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.

Species and habitat

There are two known species of these - northern and southern elephant seals. The former are found on islands along the west coast of 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.

Reproduction

Animals begin to arrive at the rookeries at the beginning of spring. This is the end of August - the first ten days of September (in southern hemisphere summer begins in December, and winter in June). First, pregnant females appear on the rocky shores. The males arrive later. Fights immediately begin between them. Sometimes they turn into whole bloody battles, since elephant seals have quite powerful front fangs.

In the end, everything calms down, and each male finds a harem. It can include 10 females, or a hundred. It all depends on the strength and aggression of the male. The birth of babies occurs in September and October. Females crawl away to give birth in secluded places. The cub is born alone. Its body length reaches up to a meter, and its weight is 25-30 kg.

The mother feeds the baby with milk for a month. Then she returns to the male and becomes pregnant again. The gestation period is 11 months, that is, almost a year. The baby is left alone. He is already getting married without his mother's supervision. When he is 3 months old, he swims away with his peers in open ocean. After molting, at the end of February, adult animals leave the rookery until next spring. Puberty in males it occurs at 4 years, in females at 2 years. The female gives birth every year for 10-12 years. These animals live on average 20 years.

Another enemy is man. In past centuries, he mercilessly destroyed harmless animals for their fat. From one killed elephant seal they received at least 500 kg of valuable product. Nowadays, fishing for these is prohibited. In this regard, their number has increased. The number of southern elephant seals today is 750 thousand. At least 250 thousand animals live on the island of South Georgia, and the same number on the Kerguelen Islands. These are the largest rookeries of huge seals, which they share with penguins.

The belonging of elephant seals to true seals today is indisputable, but their position within this taxon is often the subject of debate. King hypothesized in 1983 that elephant seals are most closely related to the monk seal genus and that both genera represent the most ancient forms of true seals. In 1996, Binida-Emodnes and Russell could find no evidence for such a close relationship, but confirmed the basal position of elephant seals in the taxonomy of true seals.

Elephant seals are mammals that belong to the class of pinnipeds. They can be compared to seals, they are very similar. The only difference is in size, elephant seals are larger, and also in a skin appendage up to 30 cm long in the area of the nose, which is considered to be a trunk. That’s why elephant seals were named that way – because of this trunk.

Where do elephant seals live?

Elephant seals live in the Southern Hemisphere of the earth, preferring subantarctic climatic zones, but these mammals can also be found in arctic zones. Popular locations for elephant seal colonies are Heard and McDonald Islands, South Georgia, Prince Edward, Crozet, the Kerlegen Archipelago, as well as some peninsulas and islands of Western Antarctica.

What makes the elephant seal unique?

The elephant seal is considered the most large predator in the world. Its diet consists of squid, sometimes fish and krill.
They spend up to 300 days a year in water. For the remaining 2-3 weeks, elephant seals find a rookery on beaches near the shore for mating and breeding.
While in the water, elephant seals cover a distance of up to 13 thousand kilometers, making daily dives into water up to 700 meters, but cases of diving up to 2000 meters have been observed.
The maximum time an elephant seal has been recorded under water is 120 minutes.
The blood of elephant seals is saturated with oxygen, which allows them to make such long swims and dives. And the blood itself makes up a fifth of the total body weight of a mammal (this is 2-3 times more than that of a person).
The body length of males can vary from 4 to 6 meters, their body weight is 3-5 tons. And the body length of the female is much smaller - from 2.5 to 3 meters, body weight - up to 1 ton.
Baby elephant seals are called pups. Puppies are born quite large. Their body length at birth can be 125 cm, and their weight can be up to 50 kg.
The number of elephant seals around the world is about 800 thousand individuals, more than half of them live on the island of South Georgia.
The organization of the mating process of these mammals is similar to a harem. The strongest males regularly fight for their right to become the “master of the harem” with other males. Only a third of the males have the opportunity to get to the females.
Elephant seals move on land a little awkwardly due to their heavy weight. When moving, they use the front flippers, but most of the weight is transferred to the back of the animal's body. In water, on the contrary, they feel harmonious and look very graceful.
The average life expectancy of males is 18-20 years, and that of females is 12-14 years.

The mating process or mating games of elephant seals

Elephant seals live alone while swimming and only 2-3 summer months these mammals spend time on land, gathered in large groups for rest and reproduction. The size of such a group can reach 400 thousand individuals. Reproduction of these mammals occurs exclusively on land. Females become ready for reproduction and mating at the age of 2-3 years, males become sexually mature later: at 4-7 years.

When entering land, all sexually mature females gather in one heap and form a so-called harem, where only selected males have the right to enter. Every male who wants to get into the society of females must defend his right to reproduce. The males emit a long roar and begin their battles among themselves. These battles are sometimes brutal and consist in the fact that one of the males drives another male out of his territory. In this battle, the size, weight and of course the age of the mammal play an important role.

After the victory, the male goes to the females and gets the opportunity to copulate with them. Only a third of all males can receive this honor. One male can mate with a large number of females: from 20 to 300 individuals, sometimes even up to a thousand females.

On average, females give birth to puppies 2-3 months after arriving on land. When puppies are three weeks old they molt. The black fur that covered their body changes to a gray fur skin.

While feeding the puppies with milk, the female does not leave their side even to catch food for herself. Breastfeeding puppies can last up to 4 weeks.

In the 19th century, elephant seals were on the verge of extinction

Indeed, in the 19th century, elephant seals were open hunt, they were the object of hunting because of the subcutaneous fat that was extracted from their bodies. Especially large males were exterminated at that time, which is why the birth rate of puppies also decreased.

The extermination of elephant seals took place in a barbaric manner. Animals were speared on the shore, not allowed to reach the water, and even had burning torches shoved into their mouths. And all this for the sake of a layer of subcutaneous fat, which in elephant seals can reach a thickness of 15 cm.

But starting in 1964, a ban on hunting elephant seals came into force. Was created International Convention Antarctic Seal Conservation, which protects the rights of elephant seals and other pinnipeds.

The southern elephant seal belongs to the family of true seals. In terms of size, it ranks second among all pinnipeds, second in size only to the northern elephant seal. Even the indigenous inhabitant of the Arctic, the walrus, loses in all respects and is in an honorable third place. The largest representatives of the southern giants reach a length of 6.5 meters and weigh 3.5 tons. The usual length of a male is 5.5 meters and weighs 2.5 tons.

Females are noticeably smaller. Their length does not exceed 3.5 meters, their weight rarely reaches one and a half tons. The distinctive sign of this huge seal is its trunk: a leather fold located on the upper part of the muzzle in males - females do not have such a formation. In a calm state, it reaches a length of 10 cm. When the elephant is excited, the fold muscles tense, and the trunk increases to 25-30 cm. Due to its size, as well as the trunk, this animal is called the elephant seal.

Appearance

The animal has rough, wrinkled skin. On top it is covered with sparse, hard and short fur of a dark brown color. During molting, which begins in December and lasts a month and a half, the old skin becomes blistered and slides off the body in long, wide strips. This process is very painful and unpleasant. The elephant lies on the ground and does not eat anything. He is losing a lot of weight and weakening. But after the update skin immediately rushes into the sea, where he quickly restores his strength.

Newborns are born with black fur. Moreover, it is not sparse, but thick. Upon reaching 2 months, the color of the fur changes to light gray. The body of the southern elephant seal is covered with a thick layer of subcutaneous fat. It reaches a thickness of 10 cm, and its mass, in relation to body weight, is 35%. Fat protects internal organs from hypothermia and improves the buoyancy of the animal.

Habitat

Southern elephant seals make their rookeries on the Falkland, South Orkney and South Shetland Islands. They also love South Georgia, Heard and the Kerguelen Islands. Macquarie Island in the south Pacific Ocean also lies in their area of interest. The animals spend six long months on the shores covered with pebbles and sand. Up to 10 thousand individuals gather in one place, forming huge rookeries.

Here they mate, give birth to their young, and molt. After molting, they swim into the open ocean, where they can live for many days without seeing land. Southern elephant seal excellent swimmer, he is able to overcome enormous sea distances. It can swim 4 or 5 thousand kilometers to end up in the Antarctic pack ice zone or off the coast South Africa and New Zealand. This animal dives to a depth of 500 meters and can stay under water for 40 minutes.

Reproduction and lifespan

Animals begin to arrive at the rookeries at the beginning of spring. This is the end of August - the first ten days of September (in the southern hemisphere, summer begins in December and winter in June). First, pregnant females appear on the rocky shores. The males arrive later. Fights immediately begin between them. Sometimes they turn into whole bloody battles, since elephant seals have quite powerful front fangs.

The mother feeds the baby with milk for a month. Then she returns to the male and becomes pregnant again. The gestation period is 11 months, that is, almost a year. The baby is left alone. He is already getting married without his mother's supervision. When he is 3 months old, he swims with his peers into the open ocean. After molting, at the end of February, adult animals leave the rookery until next spring. Sexual maturity in males occurs at 4 years, in females at 2 years. The female gives birth every year for 10-12 years. These animals live on average 20 years.

Enemies

The southern elephant seal feeds on fish, cephalopods and mollusks. He himself becomes a victim of killer whales. These huge predators attack him both in coastal and open ocean waters. But since they do not like to move further than 800 km from the coast, the huge seal, having overcome this distance, is completely safe. Elephant seal pups are attacked by leopard seals.

Another enemy is man. In past centuries, he mercilessly destroyed harmless animals for their fat. From one killed elephant seal they received at least 500 kg of valuable product. Nowadays, hunting these animals is prohibited. In this regard, their number has increased. The number of southern elephant seals today is 750 thousand. At least 250 thousand animals live on the island of South Georgia, and the same number on the Kerguelen Islands. These are the largest rookeries of huge seals, which they share with penguins.

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In our age, when humanity has penetrated into outer 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 properly acquainted 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.

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 that are difficult for humans to reach: they either swim in ice water 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 islands lost in the ocean. 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). Northern view, differing from the southern one in being narrower and long 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 were also subjected to merciless extermination southern species, whose former vast range 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 temperate zone, where previously there were also rookeries of these animals - for example, on the southern coast of Chile, on King Island near Tasmania or on the Falkland Islands and Juan Fernandez Island - now you will not 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 are clearly thriving there, 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 in 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 its 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-bodied animal displays 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 uninterrupted - in any case, it is not so easy to wake it up. 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 under water, the animal’s chest 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 recent 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. 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 leaves one in awe. 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 the climatic features of the places where these observations are carried out: continuous barbed winds, icy water, 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 in the composition of herds, the molting process, and 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 times. 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 an opponent, 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 “unfeeling” 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 sight. The rivals, having swum towards 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 emits a proud cry and, having made 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 qualities. At the same time, the weaker young male does not die on the battlefield and thus is not excluded from further process reproduction of the species...

When individual plots and “harems” have already been distributed, there are practically no battles between male neighbors: 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 shamefully run away, leaving a good piece of your 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 around us huge radiant eyes. But the “baby” weighs about fifty kilograms, and reaches one and a half meters in length, 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-voiced large brown birds, which in some areas are called skua, 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, eat well and build up a new layer of fat until their 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 body 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 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 the sensitive blood vessels of the skin are greatly dilated and sudden cooling can cause a disruption in the thermoregulation mechanism, which means inevitable death in icy water.

The molting elephant seal looks most deplorable: its old skin hangs 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 by season, the size of the caught seals (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.