Friday, December 19, 2008

96 Hours: Elephant seals--Tour winter breeding grounds

This weekend and for the next few months, you can get more than a glimpse of one of the most unusual animals in California wildlife just off Highway 1, an hour and a half south of San Francisco. Each year, thousands of elephant seals come back to the beaches of Año Nuevo State Reserve, where hundreds of new pups will be born, and the adult males will duke it out with each other and find a female to mate with before returning to the ocean.

With its trunklike nose and ground-shaking, throaty roar, the northern elephant seal is one of the most impressive and strangest mammals in the ocean, making its home along the Pacific coast as far south as Mexico. On average, they spend more than three-fourths of their lives in water, but when the elephant seals come ashore, they like to vacation - like many humans - along the California coast.

Read more on the Chronicle website.

2 comments:

Circe Molanthropy said...

I was there just two weeks ago during the warm spell and it was incredible! I've lived in the bay area for over 15 years and this was the first time I actually went to see them and I was NOT disappointed. The sounds as well as the sights were incredible. Just to hang out and appreciate these massive lumps for what they can do--dive up to 5000 feet--is worth the trip.

Mary Ellen Hunt said...

Aren't they incredible? To be able to just walk down to the beach and see them like that amazes me and really makes you appreciate living in California.

I'm glad you enjoyed it!