Barrrrump! Elephant seals are awesome!

Last friday, I took a trip to the Ano Nuevo State Reserve to check out the Elephant Seals. The Reserve is actually set up for the express purpose of protecting elephant seals, who come to the reserve every year to give birth and do it. Here are some neat facts:

1. The males arrive first, in mid-December, and start displaying and fighting to see who's gonna be doin' it the most. Upon arrival, they can top out at around 5,000 lbs.
2. When the females arrive, they're pregnant. Males group them into harems of about 50 females, and one male will generally do it with all 50 of his ladies once they've given birth.
3. Neither the males nor the females will eat or drink anything in the 3 months or so they're on the beach. The males lose something like half their body weight.

When we went, it was kind of late in the season, so many of the femles had already gone back out to sea. Moreover, it was midday, and the sun was out, so the activity was minimal. Here's a short video that Yao Hua took of one of the bulls moving on the dunes that's pretty indicative of the kind of activity we saw. You can see it taking up almost all of their energy just to flop a few feet before giving up to rest for a few minutes. I want to go back next year to see more fighting and elephant seal gettings on. I'm hoping for something a little more like this kickass David Attenborough video. Anyway, here are some pictures:
It was a beautiful day for seal watching. Or for being by the ocean in any respect, for that matter. The last leg of the drive was about 25 miles down Highway 1, and we rolled down the windows to let the sea air in.
It's hard to see, but there's a coyote in this picture. I'd never seen a coyote in the wild before, and unfortunately this was the best shot I could get. Apparently they scavenge on the carcasses of baby seals that don't make it.

There's a lighthouse near the reserve, and this house is on an island near the shore. It used to be the lighthouse keeper's house, back when they needed things like that. Now it's abandoned, and according to our docent tour guide, and confirmed by a ranger, it's often inhabited by California sea lions, who can climb the stairs and hang out all over the house. I bet they throw wicked parties.
Sometimes fate is cruel. This is the skeleton of a seal pup we saw on the beach. Picked clean, possibly by coyotes and/or birds.

All the seals in the center of this circle are females, part of a harem guarded by the surrounding males. The one on the left got a little too close to the other one's pup, and they started yelling at each other.
Here's a shot of a bull yelling. Due to the heat and the lateness of the season, there wasn't an excessive amount of activity, but when the bulls yell, it sounds almost exactly like a lawnmower engine revving.
I had envisioned there being some sort of fence between the tour and the beach, or at least keeping a lot of distance between us and the seals. But no, it was just like "OK, be quite as we're walking past this giant seal that is ten feet away, and there are three of them all around us." If any of you have the opportunity, go see the seals next winter.