Get to know the majestic beasts at a marine sanctuary just an hour south of San Francisco.
Phyllis comes from a family of swimming legend . But she ’s a champion . An elephant stamp superstar — a record breaker . Covering an amazing 7,400 ocean nautical mile , Phyllisswam from Año Nuevo Reserve in Pescadero , California , almost to Japan , and back to Año Nuevo where she gave birth to a goodly virile pup .
Today , I ’m at Phyllis ’ stomp basis — Año Nuevo State Park — to see her fellow pinnipeds in individual . Fifty - five miles south of San Francisco , Año Nuevo possesses a postcard - perfect landscape that finger a world away from the bounteous city . Perennial stream , windswept coastline , and a patchwork of close - coned cypress tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree support creatures large and small — from five - inch - farseeing California red - legged toad frog to two - ton northern elephant seals such as Phyllis ( who was name after the late altruist Phyllis Sooy ) .
Año Nuevo is a protect sanctuary for over 10,000 northern elephant seals — one of the big mainland facts of life dependency in the humans . A particularly - designate 25 - acre preserve within the commons limits public access to protect these seal , other pinnipeds , and seabird . The green also allow decisive home ground for several mammal , amphibians , reptilian , and over 160 coinage of birds .
A male elephant seal rears its head and calls out as sudents and science researchers with UC Santa Cruz’s Costa Lab work to retrieve satellite tags from female elephant seals that they have been using to collect data on the ocean and on the animals themselves at Ano Nuevo State Park in Pescadero, Calif. Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. The elephant seal breeding season at Ano Nuevo State Park brings UC Santa Cruz scientists working on long-term research on the animals.|Jessica Christian/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
A mile - long windy path take me from the park ’s visitor shopping center to the elephant seal tour staging sphere . “ Elephant seals are unbelievable , ” Irene , our enlistment usher tells us , glitter . “ They can plunge a naut mi down to the recesses of the sea — the distance you just walked — and hold their breath for up to two hours . ”
A smiling frames Irene ’s warm face , as she shares her deep link to the park and the elephant seals that come ashore here to mate , give birthing , and nurse from December through March , and molt from April through August . “ I ’ve volunteered at Año Nuevo since 1980 when I was in college . It ’s a extra place , ” she says to our tour mathematical group of nine .
Pointing to a dune formation sprout ocean grass , Irene excuse how the hike is three miles in totality and will take about two - and - a - half hour . “ Please remain with me and the grouping , ” she implores , call for that we keep at least 25 feet away from the elephant seals for our safety and their well - being .
Photo by Irene Reti
Not long into the wage increase , Irene suddenly stops and pivot toward us , cupping her ear . “ Listen , ” she sound out . “ you may learn weanlings , or elephant Navy SEAL puppy cry for their mom . Imagine getting the nutritional eq of heavy emollient and scones from ma for almost a calendar month , and then , suddenly , she ’s gone . ”
Catching my breathing spell , I first pick up ( “ wa - ee , wa - ee , wa - electrical engineering … ” ) and then spy an elephant Navy SEAL pup crouched between fortress of uprise dune . Sunlight glints on the pup ’s dark gray , blubbered back , layered with folds of unironed cutis . Using a diminutive front fin burgeon forth claws , she douses herself with sand — elephant seal sunscreen .
The Good Book pup might conjure images of a diminutive animal , but that ’s far from the case with untried elephant seals . When they ’re tolerate , pups average out four metrical unit - long and weigh about 75 Irish punt . Still , they ’re lightweights compared to their gargantuan parent . Full - grown manful elephant sealing wax can top 4,000 pounds and reach over 13 feet - long . Their comparatively svelte female opposite number can weigh up to 1,300 pounds and reach lengths of 10 feet .
Photo by Hilary Clark
Raising her back fin , the pup depend as if she ’s holding a yoga pose . gaze at her dingy eye and whiskered face , I wonder if she ’ll make it without mom . New elephant sealskin mum , like Phyllis , fast for up to two calendar month , throw away as much as 36 percent of their body weight . The need to refill their depleted reserve impel them back to the sea to hunt down for fish and other food . But sadly , once they entrust , their pup wo n’t see them again and must endure a marine mammal boot refugee camp entirely on their own . This mean teaching themselves how to drown , catch fish , and maybe most critically , evade shark .
“ Why did the mum go away ? ” a young male child in our mathematical group inquire , clutching his dad ’s hand . His dad points to the ocean . “ She had to go to the fish market to get food , ” he answer , lightly squeezing his son ’s shoulder .
Susan Blake , lead interpreter for Año Nuevo State Park , says that when some people get a line how elephant seal mum empty their pup after a calendar month or two , they ask in shock , “ How could she ? What a unfit mom ! ” But Blake emphasizes , “ Elephant seals are n’t people . They have wild instincts that run their sprightliness . ”
Photo by Hilary Clark
As for their male counterparts , a bull elephant seal perches on the edge of the beach about a football field away from us . His massive cinch and proboscis nose imbue him with a royal zephyr . Watching him , I ’m reminded of the elephant cachet bull that saved a swim pup at Point Reyes National Seashore , about 88 miles northwards of Año Nuevo . Scientists , who witnessed the epic act , were stun . Bull elephant seals are n’t doting fathers . In fact , while chamfer or bustle about forth from other males , they ’ll often beat pup with their massive girth .
Blake , however , cautions that we can never truly live what motivated the bull to salvage the pup . “ They ’re fantastic animals , not guided by social More , ” she restate . “ Surging testosterone sometimes propels bull to not only mate with females , but weanlings . Some people find elephant seal of approval mating rituals troubling , but again , they live by their instincts . ”
mouth of which , before females arrive ashore , Irish bull spar like sumo wrestlers . Blubber on blubber , their rotund bodies , weighing as much as semi - motortruck , mash . Sharp teeth deflate each other ’s necks with intuitive oink . Lifelong battle scars form . A lot is at stake . The superior lay claim the coveted title of alpha male person , commanding a serail of female elephant seal of approval and the privilege of passing on his genes to the next coevals .
At the moment , though , things are pretty peaceable . Only about 30 ft away , roar , snorting , and snoozing elephant seals cluster in tightly packed clumps . Some treat their fellow pinnipeds as plump pillow on which to rest their aweary heads . Others propel their weighty bellies across sand with front flippers that appear too small for the job . Irene excuse that their vocalizations are distinct and help them recognize each other , as we would the interpreter of a loved - one or friend .
On land , elephant seals seem torpid , slug about , snoozing aside their good afternoon in slumbering siestas . But sopor - deprived elephant SEAL are recovering from backbreaking journeys where they swim G of ocean nautical mile to reach true feeding areas . distaff elephant cachet give on lanternfish and little squid , while males eat a variety of benthal organism that live in the inscrutable recesses of the ocean .
University of California , Santa Cruzlecturer Patrick Robinson , who has been studying the pinniped for over 20 days , and other scientist affix orbiter tracking devices on elephant seals to determine how they transmigrate with such speck preciseness . “ Better understand how elephant seal migrate will help us learn more about other inscrutable - ocean - dwelling mammalian , such as elusive beaked whales that have see mass stranding events , ” Robinson explains .
Drift diving event , elephant seals spin out in a marine mammal pirouette , and decrease at peace for 10 moment , settle down about 550 meters . After a 10 - minute “ cat nap , ” they put on their hypothetical skimmer ’s ceiling and steer their streamlined girth over a wide area of the northeasterly Pacific . “ item-by-item elephant seals will often , but not always follow a like path from twelvemonth to year , whereas young seals are much less directed in their motion , ” Robinson say .
As their powerful back flipper launch them through pitch - black waters , they rotate their hair like a cat to sense prey . “ We do n’t know how elephant seals pilot , but we consider they use a compounding of cues , such as the Earth ’s magnetic field , ” Robinson tells me . “ On mediocre , they pop their brain out of the water every 23 minutes to take a breath . Their eyes are so keen that they can see the star field . So they might habituate celestial navigation as their orbit at night . ”
steep in visions of elephant seal of approval journey , it takes me a hour to realize someone is trying to get my attention . “ Hey , the big cat is on the move ! ” the dad says , brim .
I become toward the two - ton bull . slide his massive belly across the sand , he swivel his SUV - sized girth away from the ocean with single - apt determination , as if on a mission . We simultaneously revoke our binoculars to watch him . Battle scar crisscross his neck like barbed telegram . “ He ’s cool ! ” the son exclaims .
Elephant seals once teetered on the boundary of extinction , but probably far earlier than you would have imagine — at the turn of the twentieth 100 . Back in 1892 , only about 20 such seals were left . Thankfully , they live Guadalupe Island off the coast of Baja California in Mexico , lay aside themselves in the process . “ Their unobtainable localisation spared them from hunter . They were prosperous , ” Robinson notes .
Their populations eventually rebounded , and today , more than 220,000 elephant seals inhabit the wild — all genetically like because their numbers dipped so dispirited 130 years ago . “ We were really distressed when COVID struck , because if it infected one northern elephant seal , it could circulate to the relief of the colony and wipe them out , ” Robinson tells me . “ luckily , that did n’t happen , but we wore masque and took extra forethought when researching them . ”
Elephant seals , however , continue to make do with looming menace to their survival . They can ingest or become entangled in fictile pollution that ’s ravaging the world ’s ocean . They consume fish and calamari riddled with mercury . And rising sea level motor by climate alteration could inundate the beach they require to rest , spouse , give birth , nurse , and molt .
With that in mind , I take one last look at the elephant seals straggle out on the beach . One roar , exposing a Citrullus vulgaris clapper and pointy teeth . Trudging past the cascading sand dune where we first stopped , I scan for the whelp . She ’s sleeping . Peering at her lovely face , I question if she ’ll jaunt toward Japan , like Phyllis the swim phenom , or perhaps transmigrate to another far - flung address . Wherever her journeys take her , I ’m grateful that she can always call Año Nuevo nursing home .
