Elephant Seal

elephant seal or sea elephant, a true seal of the genus Mirounga. It is the largest of the fin-footed mammals, or pinnipeds, exceeding the walrus in size. There is a northern species, Mirounga angustirostris, along the Pacific coast, and a larger southern species, M. leonina, that breeds on sub-Antarctic islands. Males commonly reach a length of 18 ft (5.5 m) and a weight of 5,000 lb (2,270 kg); the female may measure 10 ft (3 m). A hollow, flabby snout about 15–18 in. (38–45 cm) long on the male gives these seals their name. During the 3-month breeding season the largest bulls stake out territories and try to attract and hold as many females as possible. When a bull is sexually excited or angry it snorts air from the proboscis into the throat, producing sounds heard miles away. Bulls do not eat during breeding, but females without pups feed on squid, fish, crabs, and other organisms that compose their main diet. These earless seals are graceful in water, diving to 2,275 ft (700 m) for food. Seal hunters, who extracted oil from blubber, pushed the northern species to the edge of extinction in the 19th cent. In 1911 the Mexican government extended protection to the single remaining M. angustirostris colony on Guadalupe Island off Baja California; the United States eventually followed suit. By the early 1990s an estimated 60,000 animals were found on island rookeries off Baja and central California. Elephant seals are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Carnivora, suborder Pinnipedia, family Phocidae.

Bibliography

See W. N. Bonner, Seals and Man (1982); B. LeBeouf, Elephant Seals (1985); F. Trillmich, ed., Pinnipeds and El Niño (1991).

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elephant seal

Elephant seal bull (Mirounga)

(credit: Anthony Mercieca—Root Resources)

Either of the two largest pinniped species: the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris), of coastal islands off California and Baja California, or the southern elephant seal (M. leonina), of sub-Antarctic regions. Both are gregarious earless seals. The male has an inflatable, trunklike snout. The northern species is yellowish or gray-brown, the southern species blue-gray. Males of both species reach a length of about 21 ft (6.5 m) and a weight of about 7,780 lbs (3,530 kg) and are much larger than the females. Elephant seals feed on fish and squid or other cephalopods. During the breeding season, bulls fight to establish territories along beaches and to acquire harems of up to 40 cows.

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Elephant Seal 

any one seal of the genus Mirounga of the family Phocidae. They are the largest pinnipeds. The males are 3.7–5.5 m long, with the largest individuals weighing more than 3 tons; the females are up to 3 m long and weigh up to 1 ton. Adult males have a distinctive snout that inflates when the animal is excited and somewhat resembles a short trunk (hence the name). Elephant seals have a coat of brown hair. There are two species: the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris), which lives near the Pacific coast of North America from California to southern Alaska, and the southern elephant seal (M. leonina), which is found in the pelagic zone of the subantarctic. Elephant seals are herd animals. They breed (forming a harem with a male leader) and molt primarily on island beaches, such as those of the South Georgia and Falkland islands. They feed on fish and, less frequently, on cephalopod mollusks. Because elephant seals are protected species, their numbers are increasing.

REFERENCES

Zhizn’ zhivotnykh, vol. 6. Moscow, 1971.
King, J. Seals of the World. London, 1964.

K. K. CHAPSKII