Species: Mirounga angustirostris

Northern Elephant Seal
Species

    Mature males have a large inflatable proboscis and grow to 4+ meters in length and 2,000 kg. Females are smaller (to 3 meters and 600 kg). Newborn pups are about 4 feet (1.25 meters) long and have thick black pelage.

    Kingdom
    Animalia
    Phylum
    Craniata
    Class

    Mammalia

    Order

    Carnivora

    Family

    Phocidae

    Genus

    Mirounga

    Classification
    Other Global Common Names
    éléphant de mer
    Informal Taxonomy
    Animals, Vertebrates - Mammals - Carnivores
    Formal Taxonomy
    Animalia - Craniata - Mammalia - Carnivora - Phocidae - Mirounga

    Mature males have a large inflatable proboscis and grow to 4+ meters in length and 2,000 kg. Females are smaller (to 3 meters and 600 kg). Newborn pups are about 4 feet (1.25 meters) long and have thick black pelage.

    Habitat Type Description
    Marine
    Migration
    false - true - true - Elephant seals make protracted migrations between breeding/molting areas and feeding grounds; over a period of 12 months, they migrate from breeding areas to feeding areas then back to breeding areas (to molt) then back to feeding areas and finally back to breeding areas (to breed); over a year, the distance traveled is about 20,000 km (Stewart and DeLong 1995). From San Miguel Island, adult females move to feeding areas at latitudes of but far away from Oregon and Washington; adult males move north to Alaska when not breeding or molting (Stewart and DeLong 1995). Many weaned pups leave breeding grounds in April, diperse north as far as Vancouver Island, return to central California coast in September. Young from southern California rookeries may move north to central California, return to island of birth to molt in spring of next year.
    Non-migrant
    false
    Locally Migrant
    true
    Food Comments
    Eats cephalopods, Pacific hake and other teleosts, various cartilaginous fishes, and jawless fishes (Condit and Le Boeuf 1984). Preys mostly on mesopelagic squid; also apparently feeds commonly on bottom in deep water; commonly dives to several hundred meters. Males do not feed during breeding season.<br><br>Northern elephant seals are exceptional divers. When foraging on fishes and squid, they sometimes dive deeper than 1,500 meters and can remain submerged for 1-2 hours. After weaning her pup, a female goes to sea and spends 83-90% of her time underwater.
    Reproduction Comments
    Single pup is born late December-February (rarely March), mainly in February. Pups are weaned in 4 weeks. Mating occurs a few days before the pups are weaned, then females go to sea to feed. Most adults vacate the breeding areas by the end of February. Young go to sea at 11-16 weeks, after fasting on beach for several weeks. Relatively few males (mainly 9-11 years old, or younger in newly established colonies) inseminate most of the females. Females produce their first pup usually at 3-5 years. Most females breed annually. Reproductive success increases between maternal ages of 3-7 years, then levels off; however, females breeding at a young age may experience lowered reproductive success later in life (Sydeman et al. 1991). Males live up to 15-16 years; oldest known female was 18 years old.
    Ecology Comments
    Dominance hierarchy forms among males on breeding grounds. Highly gregarious when ashore, during breeding season and when molting. Adult females and juveniles come ashore to molt in spring, males in summer, nonpregnant females and young in fall. Preweaning mortality varies greatly among different colonies, from a few percent to sometimes 76% (see Stewart and Huber 1993 for additional survivorship data).
    Length
    650
    Weight
    3500000
    NatureServe Global Status Rank
    G5
    Global Status Last Reviewed
    1996-11-19
    Global Status Last Changed
    1996-11-19
    Conservation Status Map
    <img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?CA.BC=__&US.AK=S4&US.CA=SNR&US.OR=__" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
    Global Range
    Northern elephant seals range widely in the North Pacific (regularly north to British Columbia), with males ranging farther north (as far as Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands) than females. Breeding sites are distributed on islands and the mainland from the central Baja California coast north to California, including islas Guadalupe, San Benito, Cedros, Natividad (few), San Martin (few), and Coronado (few) in Mexico; and Santa Barbara, San Nicolas, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, San Clemente (few), Ano Nuevo, and Southeast Farallon islands, and Ano Nuevo Point, Point Reyes, and Piedras Balncas, in the United States; recently, pupping was observed at Shell Island, Oregon (Hodder et al. 1998). Largest breeding colony is on Guadalupe Island off Baja. Has strayed to Midway Island, Hawaii (Tomich 1986) and to a small island near Japan.
    ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.105540