Elephant Seals

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer."
-Ansel Adams


On Hwy. 1 along the California coast, 14 miles north from the quaint little town of Cambria and just past Hearst Castle by 4 miles, one can find the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery.

Elephant seals are amazing animals to observe in the wild, to which the rookery here provides visitors safe and easy access for viewing. Ample parking next to the elephant seals is provided by the Hearst Corporation, allowing for a quick walk to the rookery beaches. On the south side of the parking lot, a boardwalk leads people along the beach cove, well above the animals for a birds eye view.

For a closer, more intimate view, to the north of the parking lot runs a dirt trail paralleling the shore about 3 feet above the beach. Elephant seals will rest on the sand right up to the trail, allowing for some great photo ops for those armed with a camera. No need for extreme telephoto lenses here; something in the 200mm. range will get you plenty of closeups. Most of the photos below were shot around 200 - 400mm. 'cuz I happen to have the glass, but a nice little compact camera with a decent zoom will yield many a pleasant shot. One can get within mere feet of these lumbering giants and not be in danger, as that little three foot rise to the trail from the beach is plenty enough to keep them at bay due to their bulk and blubbery fat. Freaky at first, until one gets used to having a beast that can approach the weight of a VW Beetle to be almost within arms reach.

For more information on the elephant seal rookery and the history of  the California elephant seal, go to this page from the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce:

Elephant Seals, Big Sur California

I visited the rookery while on my way to a photo shoot up in Big Sur back in May of 2007; the big giant males having already left the rookery for deeper waters, leaving the females and juveniles in sole possession of the beaches. During the height of the breeding season, there can be upwards of several thousand animals calling this rookery home. The ones in these photos are in the process of molting, shedding both skin and fur during this time.

This little (the term little is relative)  guy was basking just below the trail that runs along the north side of the parking lot. I could almost pet him if I reached out far enough. He is approaching adulthood, as can be seen by his prominent proboscis (schnoz) , which will get even bigger as he matures. During mating season, male elephant seals will fight fiercely for females, inflating the proboscis to many times its normal size during bouts ("Mine's bigger than yours." -type macho male thing.).

He was so cute! I ended up taking quite a few photographs of him.

Tilting his head back and making bellowing sounds, I wanted to squeeze him so hard it would have caused his eyes to bulge 'cuz he was so darned cute.

Female striking a sultry and demure pose. Notice the lack of a prominent proboscis as compared to the juvenile male above.

As they bask on the beach and on occasion,  elephant seals will flip sand on to their bodies. I'm assuming this is their version of suntan oil and/or it helps to keep them cool. Even with an air temperature hovering around 50°F, a blubbery creature such as this would be inclined to overheat some. Tending to bunch up in groups though, some of that sand ends up in others faces.

A group of females snoozing in the morning sun. Molting is very noticeable. Many of the elephant seals have a crusty, oozing snot coming out of their nostrils. I don' know what it is. My guess is that they probably ingest fair amounts of seawater while feeding. This may be the way their bodies purge themselves of excess salt from their systems. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know.

There seems to be constant bickering and poking and prodding and fighting between animals. Females tend to mass together and constantly disturb and get in the way of each other. Juvenile males will call each other out and practice fighting to prepare themselves for the day when they become fully mature and fight to form their own harems. Here we see two females bickering.

 Immature male reading the riot act to a female.

 I left Big Sur very early in the morning, on my way home from a wonderful photo shoot. I approached the rookery once again and decided to stop by, as it was still very early in the morning and no one else was at the rookery for a visit yet. I had the place to myself, and therefor felt more at ease going down on the beach, in and amongst the elephant seals. They were still all snoozing and didn't give a hoot that I was on their beach and milling around amongst them. A typical Central California coastal fog set in, imparting the ocean and rookery with a calm, but moody sense. These animals are so slow on land, that even if I miffed one, I could outrun it easily... as long as the escape path in front of me was devoid of any other seals.

The air was absolutely still, tinged with a bit of coolness and moisture. Noises traveled far. The Pacific was just that: passive and pacified. What was eerie and disconcerting, was that out in the water, elephant seals were swimming and foraging for food, just out of view. They would bellow and huff and snort and make all sorts of weird noises that carried loudly and well over the water.

All I could picture was this massive male come zipping in up on to the beach with mouth wide open bearing fangs the size of human fingers; its huge proboscis flapping in the breeze like a grotesque, flaccid Polski kielbasa; sailing through the air on a perfect trajectory, intercepting my unwary position by the shore, just like the Nat Geo films of killer whales lunging on to a beach, grabbing an unsuspecting and hapless seal in its fish breath maw and dragging it back out into the ocean. The only evidence of that seal ever having existed is a bloody-tinged splotch of water just off shore... all that's left of my visit is one lonely tripod and camera lying forlornly in the sand. Oh, the horror of it...

The moodiness of the place and the noises emanating from just off shore in the water reminded me of that old computer game from the '90's called Myst. Inhabiting the game was a large creature that lived in a lagoon that looked similar to an elephant seal and made the exact same sounds as one. I'm sure now the creators of Myst were familiar with elephant seals and modeled their creature after them.

That concludes the elephant seals. Next we leave the shoreline and head out to the desert where we will be visiting Joshua Tree National Park, California.