What does an elephant seal look like? Sea Elephant

Elephant seals ( Mirounga) is the largest genus in the family of true seals, . There are two species of elephant seals, named according to the hemisphere in which they live. Northern elephant seals ( Mirounga angustirostris) are found in coastal waters around Canada and Mexico, and southern elephant seals ( Mirounga leonina) are common off the coast of New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina.

Description

The oldest confirmed fossils of these animals are from and they were discovered in New Zealand.

Only the adult male has a large trunk, similar to. The male uses it to roar during the mating season.

Southern elephant seals are slightly larger than northern ones. expressed, males of both species are much larger than females. Average weight an adult male of the southern species can weigh 3000 kg, and its body length can reach 5 m. An adult female weighs about 900 kg, and its body length is approximately 3 m.

The color of the animal depends on gender, age and season. It can be rusty, light or dark brown, or gray.

U elephant seal It has a large body, short front flippers with toes, and webbed rear flippers. Under the skin there is a thick layer of fat that protects the animal in cold weather. Every year, elephant seals molt.

The average life expectancy is between 20 and 22 years.

Reproduction

Elephant seals are solitary animals. They return to established breeding colonies every winter. Females become sexually mature at the age of 3 to 6 years, and males at 5-6 years.

However, males must reach alpha status to mate, which usually occurs between 9 and 12 years of age. Males fight each other using their body mass and teeth. While deaths are rare, injuries are common. The alpha male's harem consists of 30 to 100 females. Other males hang around the edges of the colony, sometimes mating with females before the alpha males pursue them. Males remain on land during the winter to defend territory.

About 79% of adult females mate, but only more than half of them produce offspring. The gestation period lasts about 11 months, at the end of which one calf appears. A female's milk contains an extremely high percentage of fat, over 50% (compared to 4% fat in female milk). Females do not eat for one month to nurse their young. The next mating occurs within last days feeding.

Nutrition and behavior

Elephant seals are mammals. Their diet includes squid, octopus, eels, fish, krill, and sometimes. Males hunt on the bottom, while females hunt in the open ocean. Elephant seals use vision and the vibration of their whiskers to find food. They can attack sharks, killer whales and people.

These animals spend about 20% of their lives on land and about 80% in the ocean. Although they are animals, elephant seals are capable of outpacing humans on land. In the sea they reach a speed of 5-10 km/hour.

Elephant seals can dive to great depths. Males spend more time underwater than females. An adult male is capable of staying under water for about two hours and diving to a depth of about 2 km.

Security status

Elephant seals were hunted for their meat, fur, and fat. Poaching has brought species to the brink of extinction. By 1892, most people believed that northern elephant seals were extinct. But in 1910, a single breeding colony was discovered near Guadalupe Island off the coast of the Mexican state of Baja California. At the end of the 19th century, new conservation legislation was introduced marine environment to protect these animals. Today, elephant seals are no longer endangered, although they are at risk of becoming entangled in garbage and fishing nets, and can also be injured by collisions with watercraft. The IUCN lists them as Least Concern animals.

• Scientists have determined that when the water temperature is warm, more males are born than females.
• The screeching of the orcs in the mines of Moria in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was the sound of baby elephant seals.
• In 2000, a male elephant seal named Homer terrorized the New Zealand city of Gisborne. Homer has attacked cars, boat trailers, trash cans, trees and even a transformer.

Your name sea ​​Elephant received thanks to located above oral cavity a process that resembles a trunk. A trunk 30 cm long grows in males closer to eight years of age; in females the appendage is completely absent.

Interesting fact about the elephant seal is the property of the trunk to increase in size up to 60-80 cm during sexual arousal. Males shake their trunk-like appendages at competitors in the hope of scaring them.

Description and features of the elephant seal

About marine elephants researchers collected a large number of information. On photo of elephant seal resembles: streamlined animal body, head small sizes with a trunk on which vibrissae (whiskers with high sensitivity) are located, the eyeballs have the shape of a flattened oval and are colored dark, the limbs are replaced by flippers that are equipped with long claws reaching 5 cm.

Elephant seals are poorly adapted to life on land, since their corpulent body prevents them from moving: one step of a large animal is only about 35 cm. Due to their clumsiness, they bask on the shore and sleep almost all the time.

Pictured is an elephant seal.

Their sleep is so deep that they even snore; during their rest, biologists even managed to measure their temperature and heart rate. One more interesting fact about elephant seals is the animal's ability to sleep underwater.

This process occurs as follows: 5-10 minutes after falling asleep rib cage expands, as a result of which the density of the body decreases somewhat and it slowly floats up.

After the body is on the surface, the nostrils open and the elephant breathes for about 3 minutes, after this time it descends back into the water column. The eyes and nostrils are kept closed during underwater recreation.

Elephant seals can dive under water and rise to the surface while sleeping.

People who encounter this animal for the first time have a question: What does an elephant seal look like?? Male elephant seals are much larger than females. If the male's body length is on average about 5-6 m, elephant seal weight- can reach 3 tons, the body length of female individuals is only 2.5 - 3 m, weight - 900 kg. This type of elephant is characterized by thick gray fur.

Elephant seals living in are slightly larger than their northern relatives - weight about 4 tons, length - 6 m, and their fur is brown. In water, animals move at fairly high speeds up to 23 km/h.

Pictured is a northern elephant seal

Elephant seal lifestyle and habitat

Elephant seals spend most of their time in their native element - water. On land, they come only for mating and molting. Their stay on the surface of the earth does not exceed 3 months.

Places, where do elephant seals live, depends on their type. Exists Northern elephant seal living on the coasts North America, And southern elephant seal whose place of residence is Antarctica.

Animals lead a solitary lifestyle, coming together only to conceive offspring. While on land, elephant seals live on beaches strewn with pebbles or stones. The animal rookery may contain more than 1000 individuals. Elephant seals are calm, even slightly phlegmatic animals.

Elephant seal feeding

Elephant seals feed on cephalopods and. According to some information, the elephant seal, which is about 5 m long, eats 50 kg. fish.

Due to its large physique, a lot of air is retained in the large volume of blood, which helps elephant seals dive to a depth of about 1400 meters in search of food.

During deep immersion under water, the activity of all important organs of an animal slows down - this process greatly reduces oxygen consumption - animals are able to retain air for up to two hours.

The elephant's skin is thick and covered with coarse, short hair. The animal has a lot of fat deposits, which are somewhat burned during the mating season, when they do not consume food at all.

IN Antarctica elephant seals They travel in the warm season in search of prey. During migration, they are able to cover a path whose length is about 4800 km.

Reproduction and lifespan of the elephant seal

Males reach sexual maturity at 3-4 years. But at this age they mate very rarely, because they are not yet strong enough to defend the right to mate from other Scythians. Males acquire sufficient physical strength at the age of no earlier than eight years.

When the time comes mating season(and this time is from August to October for the southern elephant seal, February for gray elephant seal), animals gather in large groups, where there are from 10 to 20 females per male.

Fierce battles are waged between males for the right to own a harem in the center of the colony: males shake their short trunks, roar loudly and rush at the enemy in order to inflict as many wounds as possible with the help of sharp fangs.

Despite their large build, in a fight males can almost completely raise their body, remaining above the ground only on one tail. Weak young males are pushed to the edge of the colony, where conditions for mating females are much worse.

After establishing the owner of the harem, already pregnant females give birth to cubs that were conceived in the previous year. Pregnancy lasts just under a year (11 months). The body length of the newborn cub is 1.2 m, weight - 50 kg.

The cub's body is covered with soft brown fur, which sheds a month after birth. Brown fur changes to dark gray thick fur. After the birth of the offspring, the female raises and feeds it with milk for a month, and then mates again with the male.

At the end of the month, the young live on the shore for a couple of weeks, without eating anything, using up previously accumulated fat. The offspring go into the water two months after birth.

And the white ones are worst enemies for young elephant seals. Since mating elephant seals the process is quite intense (fighting, “persuading” the female); most of the cubs die due to the fact that they are simply crushed.

The lifespan of males is about 14 years, females - 18 years. This difference occurs due to the fact that males receive many serious injuries during competitions, which worsens their overall health. Often the injuries are so severe that animals cannot recover from them and die.

Class: Mammals

Order: Pinnipeds

Family: True seals

Genus: Elephant seals

Species: Southern elephant seal

The southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) is an animal of the seal family (Phocidae).

The southern elephant seal is the largest carnivore on our planet. Male southern elephant seals weigh an average of 2.2 tons. up to 4t. and can reach up to 5.8 meters in length. The largest specimen among the southern elephant seals, it reached a length of 6.85 meters and weighed about 5 tons.

Interesting Facts:

Southern elephant seals can remain underwater for more than twenty minutes.
The documented record for staying under water was approximately two hours. The maximum depth to which southern elephant seals can dive is more than 1,400 meters.
Elephant seals have a long, pendulous nose that resembles a trunk, which is why they are named that way.
The elephant spends most of its life, more than 80 percent, in the ocean

Http://malpme.ru/samye-krupnye-zhivotnye-na-zemle/

The southern elephant seal lives along the coast of Antarctica and subarctic islands. Before man landed on Antarctica, elephant seals lived further north than they do now. The largest population lives on the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean. The southern elephant seal is also found on the Kerguelen, Heard, Macquarie Islands and the Valdez Peninsula in Argentina.

When the southern elephant seal is on land, it is found along the coast on smooth sandy beaches or small rocks. They are on land only during the breeding season and molting season, which lasts 3–5 weeks in the spring. The rest of the year is spent only at sea.

Dimorphism is observed not only in size. Males have a large trunk that increases vocalizations, used to challenge other males. The southern elephant seal's trunk is slightly smaller than those of their northern relatives, overhanging the mouth by only 10 cm, compared to 30 cm for the northern elephant seal.

Male southern elephant seals reach rookeries several weeks before females and, through vocalizations, body postures, and fighting, occupy a defined territory. The best and most large areas go to the largest and strongest males. These alpha males become the head of the harem, and with the arrival of women, it can include about 60 females. If in a harem more women, then the females go to the beta males. A man must remain on his territory, protecting it, so he must long time goes without food. Lack of food and aggressive clashes with males, energy consumption in the process of mating with a large number of women lead to physical exhaustion of the male body. Only males in ideal condition physical condition capable of defending their territory for this long time.

If this does not deter the challenger, then fights take place.

The winner takes the territory as a prize.

The shedding process involves the loss of all fur, which grows over the next 3 to 5 weeks. Apart from spending time on land to breed and molt, the southern elephant seal lives a solitary life in the waters of the southern oceans. While in the water, elephant seals rarely encounter each other and thus have no need to communicate.

While at sea, the southern elephant seal can stay underwater for two hours, but most dives last no more than 30 minutes. Surprisingly, they spend 2–3 minutes between dives on the surface of the water. They dive to depths of 300 – 800 m.

Southern elephant seal and man

In the past, southern elephant seals were hunted for food, skin, and oil. This activity has been stopped and the animal is now protected and is harvested in limited quantities.

There are only a couple of species of elephant seals, named according to the part they occupy. Earth's hemisphere. These are truly unique animals, the sex of their newborn offspring is determined by the water temperature and general weather conditions.

Description of the elephant seal

The first fossils of elephant seals date back hundreds of years.. The animals got their name because of a small process in the muzzle area, which looks very much like an elephant’s trunk. Although only males “wear” such a distinctive feature. The muzzle of females is smooth with a regular neat nose. On the nose of both of them there are vibrissae - supersensitive antennae.

This is interesting! Each year, elephant seals spend half of the winter season molting. At this time, they crawl ashore, their skin swells with many bubbles and, literally, comes off in layers. It looks unpleasant, and the sensations are no more joyful.

The process is painful and causes discomfort to the animal. Before everything is over and new fur covers its body, a lot of time will pass, the animal will lose weight and take on an emaciated and emaciated appearance. After the end of the molt, elephant seals return to the water again to gain fat and replenish their reserves of strength for the upcoming meeting with the opposite sex.

Appearance

This is the most major representatives seal family. They are geographically divided into two types - southern and northern. The inhabitants of the southern regions are slightly larger in size than the inhabitants of the northern ones. Sexual dimorphism in these animals is extremely clearly expressed. Males (both southern and northern) are much larger than females. The average mature male weighs about 3000-6000 kg and reaches a length of five meters. The female barely reaches 900 kilograms and is about 3 meters tall. There are at least 33 species of pinnipeds, and elephant seals are the largest of all.

The color of an animal's coat depends on various factors, including the animal's sex, species, age and season. Depending on them coat may have reddish tints, light or dark brown or gray. Basically, females are slightly darker than males, their fur is close to earthy in color. Males predominantly wear mouse-colored fur. From a distance, flocks of elephants that have come out to bask in the sun resemble plush giants.

The elephant seal has a huge body that looks like an oval shape. The animal's paws are replaced with flippers, convenient for fast movement in the water. At the ends of the front flippers there are webbed fingers with sharp claws, in some cases reaching a length of five centimeters. The elephant seal's legs are too short to move quickly on land. The stride length of an adult multi-ton animal is only 30-35 centimeters, because the hind limbs are completely replaced by a forked tail. The head of the elephant seal is small, relative to the size of the body, smoothly flowing into it. The eyes are dark, flattened oval in shape.

Lifestyle, behavior

On land, this huge marine mammal behaves extremely clumsily. However, as soon as the elephant seal touches the water, it turns into an excellent diver-swimmer, reaching speeds of up to 10-15 kilometers per hour. These are massive animals that lead a predominantly solitary lifestyle in the water. Only once a year do they gather in colonies to breed and molt.

How long does an elephant seal live?

Elephant seals live from 20 to 22 years, while the life expectancy of the northern elephant seal most often reaches only 9 years. Moreover, females live an order of magnitude longer than males. This is all due to the multiple injuries received by the male sex in fights for superiority.

Sexual dimorphism

The pronounced differences between the sexes are one of the most striking characteristics of northern elephant seals. Males are not only much larger and heavier than females, but also have a large, elephantine trunk, which they need for fights and demonstrating their superiority to the enemy. Also artificially obtained distinctive feature The male elephant seal has scars on its neck, chest and shoulders, acquired during endless battles for leadership during breeding seasons.

Only the adult male has a large trunk, reminiscent of an elephant's trunk. It is also suitable for making the traditional mating roar. The expansion of such a proboscis allows the elephant seal to amplify the sound of snorts, grunts and loud drum bellows that can be heard several kilometers away. It also functions as a moisture-absorbing filter. During the mating season, elephant seals do not leave the land area, so the water saving feature is quite useful.

Females are an order of magnitude darker than males. They are most often brownish in color with lighter areas around the neck. Such spots remain from the endless bites of males during the mating process. The size of males ranges from 4-5 meters, females 2-3 meters. The weight of an adult male is from 2 to 3 tons, females barely reach a ton, weighing 600-900 kilograms on average.

Species of elephant seals

There are two individual species elephant seals - northern and southern. Southern elephant seals are simply huge. Unlike most other oceanic mammals (such as whales and dugongs), these animals are not entirely aquatic. They spend about 20% of their lives on land and 80% in the ocean. Only once a year they crawl onto the shores to molt and perform the reproductive function.

Range, habitats

Northern elephant seals are found in the waters of Canada and Mexico, while southern ones are located off the coast of New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina. Colonies of these animals crawl out onto the beaches in whole clouds to moult or compete for a mate. This can happen, for example, on any beach from Alaska to Mexico.

Diet of elephant seals

Its menu mainly includes cephalopods depths of the sea. These are squids, octopuses, eels, rays, skates, crustaceans. Also some types of fish, krill, and sometimes even penguins.

Males hunt on the bottom, while females go out into the open ocean to find food. To determine the location and size of potential food, elephant seals use vibrissae, identifying prey by the slightest fluctuations in the water.

Elephant seals dive to great depths. An adult elephant seal can spend two hours underwater, diving to depths of up to two kilometers.. What exactly do elephant seals do during these epic dives, the answer is simple - feed. When the bellies of captured elephant seals were dissected, many squid were discovered. Less commonly, the menu includes fish or some types of crustaceans.

After breeding, many northern elephant seals travel north to Alaska to replenish their own fat reserves used up while on land. The diet of these animals requires deep-sea diving skills. They can dive to depths of more than 1,500 meters, remaining underwater until they emerge for about 120 minutes. Although most dives at shallower depths only last about 20 minutes. More than 80% of the year's time is spent feeding at sea in order to provide energy for the breeding and molting seasons, in which feeding retreats are not provided.

A huge reserve of fat is not the only adaptation mechanism that allows the animal to feel great at such a significant depth. Elephant seals have special sinuses located in the abdominal cavity, where they can store additional amounts of oxygenated blood. This allows you to dive and hold air for about a couple of hours. They can also store oxygen in the muscles with myoglobin.

Reproduction and offspring

Elephant seals are solitary animals. They gather together only for periods of molting and reproduction, on land. Every winter they return to peculiar breeding colonies. Female elephant seals reach sexual maturity between 3 and 6 years of age, while males reach sexual maturity between 5 and 6 years of age. However, this does not mean that a male who has reached this age will begin to participate in reproduction. He is not yet considered strong enough for this, because he will have to fight for the female. Only by the age of 9-12 will he gain enough mass and strength to be competitive. Only at this age can a male acquire Alpha status, which gives him the right to “own a harem.”

This is interesting! Males fight each other using body weight and teeth. While fatal fights are rare, mutual gifts in the form of scars are common. The harem of one Alpha male ranges in number from 30 to 100 females.

Other males are pushed to the outskirts of the colony, sometimes mating with females of slightly less "quality" before being chased away by the Alpha male. The males, despite the distribution of the “ladies” having already taken place, continue to remain on land throughout the entire period, defending the occupied territories in the fight. Unfortunately, during such fights, females are often injured and recently born cubs are killed. Indeed, during the battle, a huge, six-ton ​​animal rises to the height of its own height and with unimaginable force falls on the enemy, destroying everything that is in its path.

The northern elephant seal's annual breeding cycle begins in December. At this time, huge males crawl out onto deserted beaches. Large numbers of pregnant females will soon follow the males to form large groups, like harems. Each group of females has its own dominant male. Competition for dominance is extremely intense. Males establish dominance through looks, gestures, all kinds of snorts and grunts, increasing their volume with the help of their own trunk. Spectacular fights end with many mutilations and injuries left by the opponent's fangs.

2-5 days after the female remains on land, she gives birth to a baby. After the baby elephant seal is born, the mother feeds him milk for some time. Such food, secreted by the female's body, accounts for about 12% fat. After a couple of weeks, this number increases to more than 50%, acquiring a liquid jelly-like consistency. By comparison, cow's milk contains only 3.5% fat. The female feeds her cub in this way for about 27 more days. At the same time, she does not eat anything, but relies only on her own fat reserves. Shortly before the young are separated from their mother and set off on their own voyage, the female mates again with the dominant male and returns to the sea.

Over the next four to six weeks, the babies engage in vigorous swimming and diving before leaving the shore where they were born to spend the next six months at sea. Despite the fat reserves that allow them to go without food for a long time, the mortality rate of babies during this period is extremely high. For about another six months they will walk a fine line, since it is during this time that about 30% of them will die.

Slightly more than half of mating females do not give birth to a baby. The female's pregnancy lasts about 11 months, after which a litter of one baby is born. Therefore, females arrive at the breeding site already “in pregnancy”, after last year’s mating. Then they give birth and get down to business again. Mothers do not eat for the entire month it takes to feed their baby.

Natural enemies

Baby elephant seals are extremely vulnerable. As a result, they are often eaten by other predators, such as or. Also, a large proportion of cubs may die as a result of numerous battles between males for leadership.

Elephant seals are real giants; they are the largest carnivores. They belong to real seals and are somewhat similar to hooded seals, although they are significantly larger in size. In nature, there are 2 types of elephant seals: southern and northern.

Since the southern elephant seal is quite impressive in size, most people think that this is why the animal is called an elephant. In fact, their name comes from a fleshy growth on the nose that resembles a trunk, although the size of such a “trunk” does not exceed 10 centimeters. Females do not have such a distinctive feature.

Southern elephant seals

The elephant seal can reach 5 meters in length and weigh up to 2.5 tons. True, females are much smaller - only up to 3 meters, weighing less than a ton. The southern elephant seal differs from other types of seals in its large amount of subcutaneous fat - more than 35%. The growth on the nose is used as an element during mating fights. The animal's skin is rough and thick, covered with thick fur. Young animals are silver-gray in color, adults are brown.

The habitat of this subspecies is the subantarctic islands and the shores of Patagonia. Individuals rarely seen alone, their favorite pastime is to form huge rookeries on pebble beaches.

Interesting Facts:

• The southern elephant seal is larger than its northern neighbor - some individuals can reach 4 tons.
• They can remain in water for a long time - more than 20 minutes. The documented record for an animal being under water without a break was 2 hours.
• The maximum depth to which animals dive is almost 1.5 kilometers.
• They spend most of their lives in the ocean. They come to land during the breeding and molting season, for 3-5 weeks a year.

Females and males differ in the presence of a trunk and weight. At the same time, they have a lot in common: short front fins, a similar body type, a strong rear fin. Scars are often observed around the neck of animals, which they receive in battles during mating.

Features of life

Southern elephants feed on crabs, fish and shrimp. Males obtain food for themselves in the waters of the continental shelf, and females go out to the open sea.

Reproduction:

1. During the breeding and molting season, southern elephant seals most often arrive at the place where they were born. Several weeks before the females leave the water, the males fight for territory. Moreover, each of them must conquer and protect a certain rookery for a long time. He goes without food, which leaves him exhausted by the end of the mating period. Therefore, only the strongest alpha males remain, each of whom mates with dozens of females.
2. Most females stay at the rookery pregnant, give birth to offspring here, and some time after that they are again ready to mate. As a rule, one cub is born. In rare cases there may be two.
3. A newborn southern elephant seal is about a meter long and weighs 25-50 kg. The mother stays with the baby for 23 days, after which mating occurs and the baby is weaned. At this time he already weighs about 120 kg.
4. After this, the female goes into the ocean, and the young individuals unite in groups. For several weeks they live by using subcutaneous fat. In the end, they begin their journey to the ocean hungry. They learn to swim and get their own food on their own.
5. At 3 years of age, females reach sexual maturity, and by 6 years of age they participate in the annual mating cycle. Males begin to compete for women only at 10 years of age. Pregnancy lasts 11 months, with a life expectancy of about 20 years.

Northern elephant seal

This subspecies lives on the west coast of America, where it is considered a tourist attraction. Local residents value them because they attract tourists in large numbers. Now elephant seals are protected by law. Until recently, they were exterminated so en masse that the species has almost disappeared. It was even considered extinct for some time. However, it turned out that only one colony survived, which lived on the Mexican island of Guadalupe. After the hunting ban, the number of individuals increased sharply. Now the rate of population increase is up to 15% annually. Today the species is no longer under serious threat of extinction.

In their nature Killer whales and sharks are considered enemies. During the rutting season, males die from fatal wounds. At the same time, a large number of young animals die under the carcasses of adult individuals.

The northern elephant seal differs from the southern elephant seal in that sexual dimorphism is less pronounced. However, the trunk of males is larger - it reaches 30 centimeters in length.

The elephant seal is a very interesting animal that refers to seals. The southern subspecies is much larger, since the northern one was exterminated for a long time, which almost led to the complete extinction of the animal. The southern representative of the species is slightly larger than the northern one and is the largest carnivorous mammal.