Elephant Seals from Up Close

We were looking forward to seeing elephant seals on our recent trip to Central California, but I personally didn't expect much. My experiences with wildlife always seem to involve lots of chasing around and a reward of a brief view of someone's backside rapidly disappearing from sight.

As we were walking toward the beach, I knew I was right this time too. We could see nothing but water and bare rocks. Then we came closer and were rewarded: a seal in the water! We briefly saw its head and I pointed it out to the boys. OK, now we can go back and truthfully say we have seen an elephant seal.

 And so I was completely unprepared for what awaited me when I looked down from the promontory jutting out over the beach.

After the initial shock passed, I thought they looked rather like holiday-makers at a popular beach.

Packed neatly in rows, like sardines in a can.

I could just imagine the row: "You are squishing me! Get off my tail!".

The old skin is brown and comes off in patches. The new skin is gray. Even though they are supposed to lie down quietly to conserve energy, male seals just can't help fighting. That's the way men are...

Seals come here every year to molt. They have to change all their skin at one time because growing new skin requires lots of blood flow close to the outer skin layers. When seals are in frigid water, they cannot do that because they would lose heat quickly.

Hmmm.... To eat or not to eat, that is the question

Because they cannot go in the water for long when they are molting, they spend up to a month on the beach fasting. They go into periods of apnea when they stop breathing to conserve moisture (they get moisture with food), and sometimes put some sand over themselves to cool off.

My kids were ecstatic, saying it was the best day of their lives. I must say it is a great experience to watch wild animals from up close, in their natural environment, just doing what they are supposed to do. It reminded me that we are part of a bigger world, and it is comforting to know that there is room in it for all of us, whatever our shape, size, or color.